GLENNY ON THE CARNATION AND riCOT.EE. 
347 
are chosen for their thickness of petal, smooth- 
ness of edge, and goodness of form, but they 
are a long way from perfection ; we should 
grow every one of them if we were going to 
exhibit, for although their faults are many, 
they are the best of their several classes. 
PROPERTIES OP THE CARNATION. 
The flower should be not less than two and 
a half inches across. 
The guard or lower petals, not less than six 
in number, must be broad, thick, and smootli 
on the outside, free from notch or serrature, 
and lap over each other sufficiently to form a 
circular roseate flower, the more round the 
outline the better. 
Each row of petals should be smaller than 
the row immediately under it ; there should 
not be less than five or six rows of petals laid 
regularly, and the flower should rise and form 
a good bold centre or crown ; and in quantity 
should form half a ball. 
The petals should be stiff and slightly 
cupped. 
The ground should be pure snow-white, 
without specks of colour. 
The stripes of colour should be clear and 
distinct, not running into one another, nor 
confused, but dense, smooth at the edges of 
the stripes, and well defined. 
The colours must be bright and clear, what- 
ever they may be ; if there be two colours, 
the darker one cannot be too dark, or form 
too strong a contrast with the lighter. With 
scarlet the perfection would be a black ; with 
pink there cannot be too deep a crimson ; 
with lilac, or light purple, the second colour 
cannot be too dark a purple. 
If the colours run into the white and tinge 
it, or the white is not pure, the fault is very 
great, and pouncy spots or specks are highly 
objectionable. 
The pod of the bloom should be long and 
large, to enable the flower to bloom without 
bursting it ; but this is rare, they generally 
require to be tied about half way, and the 
upper part of the calyx opened down to the 
tie of each division ; yet there are some which 
scarcely require any assistance, and this is a 
very estimable quality. 
TOE PROPERTIES OP TnE PICOTEE. 
The properties of form are similar to those 
of the carnation ; but the distinction between 
carnations and picotees is, that the colour of 
the former is disposed in unequal stripes, 
going from the centre to the outer edges, and 
that of the picotees is disposed on the outer 
edges of the petals, and radiates inwards, 
and the more uniform this is disposed the 
better. 
"Whether it be very deeply feathered at the 
edge, like the pattern on the edge of a heavy 
feathered tulip, or an even stripe not wider 
than the thickness of the petal, all round the 
edge, or something between, it is only neces- 
sary that it be uniform ; that none of the 
feathery marks have a break, and that there 
shall be as much width of white as colour seen 
on the petal at the deepest part of the feather. 
It is not necessary that the feather be the 
same width all the way round, but every 
stripe which does not reach the edge of the 
petal is a blemish. 
DISQUALIFICATIONS OF BLOOJI. 
If there be any petal dead or mutilated. 
If there be any one petal in which the.ro 
is no colour. 
If there be any one petal in which there 
is no white. 
If a pod be split down to the sub-calyx. 
If a guard petal be badly split. 
Notched edges are glaring faults, for which 
no excellence in other respects compensates. 
Tttng the Pods. — This is usually done 
with bass-matting, but many use coarse 
worsted, which is considered better on account 
of its elasticity. There is, however, a material 
preferred by many, though of recent inven- 
tion — small bands of india-rubber, which has 
been of late used with great success, and is 
well spoken of by those who have applied them. 
It is quite necessary that they should be strong 
enough to resist a tolerable pressure, or they 
would not prevent the pod of a full flower 
from splitting ; the tearing down of the calyx 
as low as the tie will, however, so equalize the 
pressure from within, and give room for the 
petals to expand early, that the resistance to 
the tie is greatly lessened; and many of the 
best varieties will, if the calyx be carefully torn 
clown all sides alike half way down the flower, 
bloom even without a tie. 
Serrated Edges. — However smooth we 
may find the edges of Picotees and Carnations, 
they will occasionally come serrated ; and it 
has puzzled many florists to account for this 
change from season to season, for it frequently 
affects the same variety at many different 
localities. So marked is the difference between 
a flower of one season and the same flower 
another season, that, except to those who 
study every minutisa, it would hardly be taken 
for the same kind. Such is the disposition to 
go back to the serrated edges, that, on sowing 
seeds from smooth-edged flowers, the greater 
part of the produce will come notched on the 
edge ; but this is not half so singular as the 
same variety that usually comes smooth coming 
rough in particular seasons. 
