LAYERING CARNATIONS. 
57 
best done about the second or third week in July, and 
consists in making an upward slit with a sharp knife 
in the stems, just at the point where the well-ripened 
green portion adjoins the older and more woody por- 
tion near the base. The slit when made about an 
inch long through the centre of stem and into a joint 
produces a “tongue.” The freshly cut surface of this 
comes in contact with the previously prepared sandy 
soil, and in the course of three to six weeks a mass of 
fibrous roots will issue from it. To keep the layers in 
place bent wire pegs or cheap hairpins (Id. per 100) 
are used to hold them in position. A handful or two 
of finely prepared sandy soil is placed over the stems 
where they have been pegged down, and afterwards a 
good watering with a “ rose ” can is given to settle 
the soil about them. The greenhouse varieties are 
layered in the same way under glass. Carnations 
may also be increased from cuttings or “ pipings,” but 
this process is more effective under glass than in the 
open air. Well-ripened and non-flowering shoots are 
secured and firmly dibbled into a very sandy soil at 
almost any season when they can be secured in green- 
houses. Sometimes, also, the shoots of tall growing 
varieties are slit through as in layering, and then a 
little moist sphagnum moss and leaf soil is tied round 
the half-severed stem. In the course of three or four 
weeks roots push through the moss, and then the 
portion is cut off and potted. 
Carnations may also be raised from seeds sown about 
the end of March in sandy well-drained soil. When 
the young plants are large enough to handle easily, 
they should be pricked out into shallow boxes or pans, 
