OF ORNAMENTAL PERENNIALS. 95 
like the tiles of a house ; or rather, so as to make the unopened buds look like ears of corn. The most common 
carnations are, however, those springing from the first or double-flowered variety, usually called the Clove Pink. 
This flower is of a rich dark crimson, or blood-colour, and it is remarkable for the richness of its fragrance. It 
is used in medicine, and for making a kind of liqueur, wliich is said to have a very powerful efiect on the 
spirits. The garden carnations are all more or less variegated, and they are divided into three kinds, viz. the 
flakes, the bizarres, and the picotees, which are sub-divided into about five hundred named florists' flowers. The 
flakes have only one colour, on a white or yellow ground, in broad stripes, going quite through the limb of the 
petal, from the margin to the faux or throat. Bizarres have two colours, on a white or yellow ground, in 
irregular stripes and spots of pink <Jr scarlet and purple, sometimes going through the whole petal, and sometimes 
broken irregularly. Picotees have a white or yellow ground, delicately edged or spotted with some dark colour, 
the spots being extremely small and delicate — whence the name, which is derived from piquettee, or spotted. 
Each of these kinds are again divided by their colours, as scarlet-flake, pink-flake, purple-flake, scarlet-bizarre, 
&c., &c. ; as it must be observed that the stripes or spots in carnations are always either scarlet, purple, or pink, 
or some shade of these colours, on a white or yellow ground. 
The soil in which carnations are grown should be a very rich loam, mixed with a little sand, and as carnations 
are found to sufier exceedingly by the changes in the weather, they are generally kept in pots, which are more 
under the control of the grower than any bed can be in the open air. Carnations are, however, often very fine 
in beds, if the beds be well drained, in a warm open situation, and filled witli a rich soil, properly prepared. 
The preparation of the soil is considered of so much importance by carnation growers, that every work published 
by a florist on the cultivation of the flower, is full of directions for preparing the soil ; and each florist has some 
particular receipt which he considers better than any other. One of the best, because the most simple, is that 
recommended by Maddock, in his Florists' Directory. According to this work, the best compost to be used 
for " such carnations as are grown in or near large towns," consists of one barrow-load of half rotten horse-dung 
a year old, two thirds of a barrow-load of sound fresh loam, and one third of coarse sea or river sand. Tiiese 
ingredients should be mixed together in autumn, and then formed into a heap about two feet thick, which should 
be left in an open situation, and turned over two or three times in the course of the winter, when it will be ready 
for use in spring. When it is not convenient to get all the ingredients in autumn, the dung alone, after it has 
been used as a hot-bed, may be thrown in a heap for the winter ; and, as its surface freezes, it may be pared oflf 
and laid on one side till the whole mass has been thoroughly frozen through. The loam and sand may in this 
case be added in February or March, but the whole must be thoroughly mixed together before it is used. In a 
pure air in the country, the proportions of dung and loam may be reversed, as less manure will be wanted than 
in town ; and if too much manure be used, the colours will not be clear. 
When the compost is properly prepared, if intended for pots, it should be sifted through a coarse sieve, to 
take out any stones or other extraneous matter it may contain. The pots should be " at least twelve inches 
wide at top, six inches at the bottom, and ten inches deep in the inside ; with a circular aperture in the 
centre of the bottom of about an inch in diameter ; also three or four smaller holes round the sides of the pot, 
close to the bottom, to prevent the possibility of water lodging or remaining in that part." It is common to put 
an oyster-shell over the hole in the bottom of the pot, but this is a bad plan, as the oyster-shell is often pressed 
down flat over the hole, so as to cover it entirely, and the water being unable to escape, soddens or sours the soil. 
