C LENNY ON THE CARNATION AND PICOTEE. 
343 
find plenty of crocks for draining, with clean 
loam without any mixture of dung-, and have 
it well examined for wire-worm, grubs, &c. 
all the month, for if this be not done, a good 
deal of the stock would suffer from the pre- 
sence of a very few of these pests. You will 
thus be prepared for potting off both layers 
and seedlings. It would be worth providing 
temporary covering for the seedlings during 
the night, in case of frost, which would hurt 
them, though it could not much affect the lay- 
ers in old plants. 
October. — Now commence potting the 
seedlings, two in a 48-sized pot, or one in a 
60, but the former is better ; jmt about two 
inches of crocks in the bottom, and fill up 
to two-thirds with the loam, raising up the 
seedlings with a tuft of roots and mould at 
the bottom ; place them even in the pot, so as 
to bring the collar just even with the surface, 
and a little below the edge ; press them but 
little, and knock the bottom of the pots against 
the table or potting-bench, to shake down the 
earth : give them a gentle watering, and put 
them all in a frame with a glass to cover them 
when necessary. Examine the layers to see 
if they are rooted, before you disturb them, 
though there will be very few, if any, that 
have not struck out a good bunch of fibres 
before this time. The way to examine them 
is to scrape the earth from the stem where it 
dips into the soil, next the old plant, to the 
peg, and remove the peg gently ; cut off the 
stem from the old plant clean up to the joint, 
that is, even with the struck half, and by this 
the bottom of the plant becomes a fork, one 
prong of which has struck root and the other 
not, but it soon strikes in the winter pot. 
This, however, leads us to a favourite mode of 
preparing for the layering, by stopping the 
slit we make when we come to the joint, in- 
stead of bringing the knife right through the 
joint. In this case we have nothing to do but 
to cut the stem off as close as we can, and the 
bottom is solid instead of split ; they will do 
either way, but when the stem is not split 
above the joint, they more frequently break 
while pegging down, because they are not so 
pliable, and the knife will sometimes go 
through while cutting off the piece below the 
joint, because we can put nothing in the slit 
to stop it. These layers are to be potted the 
same way as the seedlings, and in the same 
stuff ; they are then to be watered and put 
into frames, and be shut down for a day or so. 
November. — The winter quarters must now 
be prepared. A hard bottom, impervious to 
water, and lying sufficiently sloping to allow 
the water to run off, is necessary ; upon this 
place the frames and glasses, and first seeing 
them well brushed inside, to clear away any 
vermin or eggs of vermin, the pots may be 
regularly stood, side by side, nearly close to 
each other ; and from this time be protected 
by the glasses from heavy rains, frost, snow, 
and strong east winds. It will be impossible 
to give too much air in open weather, for, as 
we shall repeatedly impress upon the grower's 
mind, a free circulation of air is more essential 
to this plant than almost any other considera- 
tion : the want of this will allow damp to settle 
on the plants, and mildew and destruction 
follow rapidly. The seedlings, in some in- 
stances, will be more tender than the old 
plants, and, perhaps, require rather more pre- 
caution against cold winds and frost, because 
they will continue to grow when the others do 
not. However, a little frost will not hurt 
either, though settled damp would prove highly 
injurious. 
December. — The treatment this month is 
only to be a continuation of that for last ; and 
all the winter we are only able to direct con- 
ditionally, for there is no more security against 
frost in October, November, or December, 
than in January, February, or March, nor is 
there any more likelihood of it. AYe have 
always to be prepared for sudden emergency ; 
but the only thing that we have to fear, as per- 
manently injurious, is settled damp; this 
chiefly, if not invariably, arises from the want 
of a proper circulation of air, for even wet, 
soppy ground, which we, above all other evils, 
would avoid, has been known not to prove 
injurious when the free circulation of air has 
been secured. 
LIST OF CARNATIONS RECOMMENDED. 
Scarlet Hizcu-res. 
TwiTcnET's Don John. — Fair pod, very 
double, smooth edge, form above the average, 
white fair, marking first-rate, colour striking, 
petals apt to curl, size average. 
Headley's Achilles. — Pod good, not very 
double, edge smooth, average form, white not 
pure, colours vivid and often rather too much 
of them, petals stiff, size average. 
Strong's Duke of York. — Pod good, very 
double flower, marking good, colour bright, 
white fair, petals stiff, edges smooth, often 
hardly colour enough, size large. 
Colcut's Brutus. — Pod good, not very 
double, crown sometimes deficient, form good, 
petals stiff and well marked, size average. 
Eainforth's Game-Boy. — Pod good, edges 
occasionally serrated, thin flower, marking 
good, petals stiff, and general form not high up 
enough in thecrown, size rather underaverage. 
Smith's Duke of Wellington. — Pod 
good, very double, smooth edge, form good, 
white fair, marking rather broken, colour mid- 
dling, petals, fair stiff, size large. 
Martin's SrLENDiD. — Pod good, habit of 
stem short, form first-rate, marking good, 
