May 19 , 1892. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
361 
glass. This is the very thing I have always set my face against, 
for I believe absolutely m the unlimited capabilities of the Carna¬ 
tion lo adapt itself with time and cultivation to all circum¬ 
stances. I think, indeed, that uo to a few years ago we had got 
altogether into a wrong groove, and by growing Carnations almost 
exclusively under glass were running a serious ritk of developing 
for ourselves a delicate class of flowers. Fortunately, howeve°, 
good gardeners found out their mistake in time, and returned, with 
sound reason, to the hardier treatment which was given to these 
flowers by our forefathers. Everyone now repudiates the idea 
that the ordinary Carnation requires cod lling, but harm has been 
done, and we do possess b>"autiful and highly valued varieties now 
which cm only show their best when protected from the weather. 
Perhaps the most effective display of th^se flowers in the open 
border is made by masses of seif Carnations, and I should be 
inclined to say that at present, as a class, they are freer, more 
vigorous, and better adapted to the open border than the majority 
of the flakes, fancies, and bizarres now in cultivation. I should 
like to hear the opinion of others upon this point. 
^ With regard to the border, my experience is that nothing is so 
suitable to the growr.h of the Carnati .n as fresh virgin loam, not 
too heavy, and certainly not too light. Nothing in the shape of 
manures, or artfully and ingeniously devised composts, will produce 
the same rich vigiirous growth and the same wealth of bloom as 
fresh loam. The latter and a liberal additiiin of thoroughly well 
decayed manure, sav from old hotbeds, is all that is required. You 
may add road scrapings, bones, charcoil, lime rubbish, sand, what 
you please almost, and they may do good—at any rate, they can do no 
harm, if the foundation of your border is s weet fresh top spit. My 
own system is to remake my Carnati >n border every September as 
soon as the liyersare ready for removal. Wnen we are satisfied that 
this is the case we put on the whole strength of our staff and set 
to work. By the side of the border are cartloads of fresh soil and 
well decayed manure, some crushed bones, and lime rubbish. The 
layers are lifted for some 20 feet, the port'on of the border from 
which they were taken is well trenched, and the surface raised 
with the tresh loam, manure, and other miterials. The whole is 
then trodden fairly firm, and the layers are at once planted, the 
number and position of each variety having been previously decided 
on, the same process being continued unfil the work is completed. 
I adopt this system as I am compelled by want of space to use the 
same border year after year for my plants, and I find that if I am 
stingv with my fresh loam I get a correspondingly inferior result. 
Had I room I should prefer to occupy fresh ground every year for 
my flowers, and thus be able to prepare the ground at my 
leisure. 
I have frequently advocated this liberal use of fresh loam, 
and am constantly a'^sured that th mgh it may be good it is not 
nece-^sary, that the expense is too great, or that the material 
cannot be obtained, and am confronted with the fact that many 
growers, notably my friend Mr. R iwan, produce iheir beautiful 
blooms with lut the annual renewing and remaking of the borders 
which I have recommended. I can only reply that skill and 
experience will do wonders, but that fresh loam is to the majority 
of mankind more easily obtainable than either one or the other, 
and will produce the same result. Fresh loam, like charity, covers 
a multitude of sins—sins of omiss on and commission, sins of 
ignorance and of carelessness. I look up m the matter of pure 
sweet fresh soil as the great secret of successful growing of the 
border Carnation. You all, doubtless, knew it perfectly well, 
as you all knew the other great secret, which is early autumn 
planting ; but thousands of people who grow Carnations do not 
know these simple facts, and hundreds of gardeners who ought 
to know them do not act upon them. This early autumn plant¬ 
ing is, perhaps, more imp irtant than anything. Plants established 
in tht-ir floweiing quarters before the cold season sets in will, 
as a rule, laugh at any weather. Losses, no doubt, there must 
always be from maggot, wireworm, and other causes, and I find it 
necessary to keep a reserve of layers in 60 size pots, from which I 
fill the vacancies ill the borders at the first moment after the middle 
of Februiry when we are favoured with open weather. My ex¬ 
perience is that the sooner this is done after the middle of 
February the better. I generally remove at the same time any 
plants that look sickly, for Cirnations are like pigs, it is very 
little use to attempt to doctor them ; when once they get ill you may 
as well kill them. 
As i have acknowledged, the Carnation grown out of doors 
cannot compete in beaucy of bloom with tho>e grown under glass, 
and f >r this simple reason we cannot give to the plants in our 
borders the protection overbeid afforded to those in pots. They 
are at the mercy of heavy rain storms, <.f bees, of earwigs, and of 
slugs. I am sure last year I had many hundreds of blooms decay 
by rain before the buds were half open. You may do something 
towards keeping down earwigs, and ought to be a match for the 
slugs ; but the tees, especially the bumble bees, are too much for 
anyone. Thrips, too, is a very serious trouble out of doors, and 
rny plants suffer much from it. It cannot be treated by fumiga¬ 
tion as in a house, and syringing with any composition you may 
like to mention I have found a very inefficient remedy. It must 
be allowed, then, that blooms from border Carnations cannot com¬ 
pete with those grown under glass, but only because it is impossible 
to protect them at the critical moment of the opening of the buds. 
Apart from this, I believe that they will produce blooms fully 
equal to those raised in a house. 
Before concluding I should like to say a few words, and to ask 
for the experience of others about yellow ground varieties out of 
doors. I find at Hayes that they are distinctly, as a class, less 
vig orous and free than the ordinary Carnation. At times I get 
lovely blooms, but the plants are as a rule poorer and weaker than 
their neighbours in the same border. The best doer, so far, with 
me IS certainly William Threlfall ; but it is not a variety that I 
care much fo’’, as the flowers with me are gi nerally rather thin 
and poor. Our old friend. Pride of Penshurst, certainly gives 
me the beat yellow blooms | Germania is a comparative failure ; 
Benary s Madame Van Houtte promises to do well with me, and 
Agnes Chambers last year proved both vigorous and free. I con¬ 
fess, however, that either I do not understand the jellow grounds, 
or that my soil and climate do not suit them. Do what 1 will I 
cannot get them to thrive as a class. Here and there I get a good 
and vigorous plant, but as a rule they can be unfailingly picked out 
from their ntighbours by their less satisfactory appearance. 
However, I am encouraged by a fancy that the varieties I have had 
for some time are improving, and my hope and expectation is that 
they are acclimatising themselves. My garden lies rather high, 
and the only soil that I can get within reasonable distance is rather 
too light and hot. 
It i,s a great pleasure to me to see the daily increasing interest 
which is attaching to the cultivation of the Carnation. I have in 
my own vicinity at Hayes ample evidence i»f the fact, for many of 
my neighbours appear almost as keen about them as I am myself. 
We have already scores of lovely varieties well suited for border 
cultivation, and I lo ’k with confidence to a considerable increase 
both in the number and beauty of such varieties during the next 
few years. To this end I exhort all ray friends and neighbours to 
raise seedlings. Apart from the fact that there is nothing so 
lovely in this world in the way of flowers (to my eyes at least) as 
a bed of well grown seedling Carnations, with its wealth of bloom 
of every shade and variety of colour ; it is also certain that a 
patient and intelligent perseverance in this mo-t delightful pursuit 
will be rewarded sooner or later by the production of varieties 
greatly in advance of those we now possess, more vigorous, freer 
flowering, still more exqui>ite in form and colour, and thoroughly 
well able to withstand all the rigours of our most detestable 
climate. 
THE GENUS NARCISSUS NEAR BAYONNE. 
The town of Bayonne may be considered in a way to be the 
centre of the metropolis of the Daffodil tribe, situated as it is 
between the western end of the Pyrenees and the Cantabrian 
range of the Spanish peninsula, which is rich in members of the 
same genus. For several years it has been the headquarters of a 
trade by which collectors are rapidly exterminating their native 
bulbs to supply the English market. It would be interesting to 
know for certain how many and what kinds of Narcissus are 
indigenous to the neighbourhood, and which of them are only 
naturalised, but this is a question by no means easy to determine. 
The same means which brought so many varieties of Daffodil in 
remote times to England and Ireland may have helped to multiply 
the number of indigenous kinds in the South of France also, and 
we can only judge by their general distribution whether they are 
true children of the soil or foreigners. An intimate friend of 
mine, who for upwards of forty years has lived at Bayonne, and 
knows the neighbourhood well, has from time to time sent me 
flowers and bulbs said to be collected in the country. He has 
always done his best to get information from the collectors about 
the habitat of each, and in many cases has verified this by a visit to 
the spot in person, but often the information given has proved 
entirely untrue, and some mysteries remain unsolved. During my 
recent stay at Biarritz I visited the flower markets and flower 
shops, both there and at Bayonne, nearly every day. Flowers of 
various kinds of Narcissus were brought in from early in January 
to the end of March, and I lost no opportunity of finding out all 
I could about them. Since the growth of the English colony at 
Biarritz the demand for these flowers has greatly increai^ed, and 
many of the peasants grow them in the cultivated plots—gardens 
they can hardly be called—adjoining their cottages, where flowers 
