gg THE LADIES' FLOWER-GARDEN 
They miut likowiso have air whenever the weather will permit, as they are quite aa liable to be injured by wet 
as by frost. When the mildew makes its appearance, which it does in purple spots on the foliage, the plants 
should be instantly removed from the others, and either thrown away, or the infected parts cut out ; as, if the 
infected plants ore loft amongst healthy ones, these lost will soon become diseased. 
Pipings are, properly speaking, cuttings; but they are called pipings, because sometimes they are pulled 
asunder by taking a shoot in one hand, and pulling it with the other just above a pair of leaves, so as to separate 
the upper part of the shoot from the lower, at the socket formed by the axils of the leaves ; leaving the upper 
part, which was pulled off, with a tubular or pipe-like termination. The piping is generally two or three joints 
long, and when not pulled, it is cut off just below a joint. Some cultivators cut off tlio tips of the leaves, but 
others think this practice injurious. As soon as the cuttings or pipings are made, they arc placed in pots in hght 
soil, and covered with a hand-glass. Sometimes the pipings are put into a slight hotbed, covered with sifted 
mould, without any pots, and piootees will strike well in a rich soil, in the open air. The pipings should be 
planted " about three quarters of an inch deep, and watered to make the soil adhere to them, and then the glasas* 
may be placed over them, and left undisturbed for two or three weeks, unless the weather be very dry, in which 
ease they will require a little water," which should be applied either before sunrise, or after sunset, watering 
" over the hand-glasses and surrounding soil, as this will be sufficient to keep the cuttings moist. After the 
first throe weeks they may be allowed the free air for a short time each ; and about the end of August, they will 
be rooted enough fur being removed into pots." ( Flor. Jour. p. 42.) Sometimes the ground is moistened before 
the pipings are put into it, and the hand-glass is pressed on it, in order that the cultivator may know how many 
pipings the space will hold. When the pipings or cuttings are rooted, they must be removed to pots to keep 
during winter, and treated in the same manner as the layers. Sometimes, instead of the compost recommended 
in p. 95, one of equal parts of light yellow loam, vegetable mould, and decayed manure. Another compwt 
consists of equal ports of old oow-dnng and loam. The last two mixtures have the advantage of being ready for 
use immediately. In all composts it must be kept in view, that unless the soil be rich, the herbage, or gross u 
it is called, will be poor, and the plants too weak to flower well ; though, on the contrary, if the soil be too rich, 
the colours will run into one another, and will lose the beautiful clearness and distinctness which constitutes the 
chief merit of a fine carnation. 
Seeds are seldom used in propagating carnations, except for raising new varieties ; but when they are required 
they should bo chosen from those flowers that have not many petals, but " their petals should be large, broad, 
substantial, and perfectly entire at the edge, and their colours rich, and regularly distributed." (Maddoek.) 
Neither layers nor pipings should bo taken from those plants that produce seeds ; and as soon as the petals wither, 
they should be drawn carefully out of the calyx, as the claws are apt to decay and engender mouldiness, which 
will destroy the seeds. About September or October the seeds will be ripe ; but they should not be gathered 
till they become of a very dork brown, or black. The seeds, when ripe, should remain in the seed-vessel, and be 
kept in a dry room till May, when they should be sown in pots, in light rich mould, or carnation compost, and 
kept in the open air, in an airy part of the garden, shaded fi-om the heat of the sun, till the plants are about 
three inches high, when they should bo planted out in a bed of good rich mould, about ten or twelve inches apart, 
and kept there till they flower, when it wiU be seen what are deserving of being kept, and what should bo thrown 
•way. No carnations are esteemed that are not round, and regularly formed, and clear in colour ; the margins 
