1876.J 
CARNATIONS AND PIOOTEES.—CHAPTER IV. 
81 
flowers should be hemispherical, because, although absolutely the sphere is the 
most perfect of forms, it is, first, not possible to attain that shape without a 
reconstitution of the structural parts of the flowers; and secondly, were this 
possible, it could only be attained by the loss of that which constitutes their 
chiefest beauty; whilst, relatively, the hemisphere, the next most perfect shape, 
offers a complete field for the full display of the charming variety of marking and 
habit in which this beauty most resides. Of this /orm, it is only necessary to 
say it should be full and unbroken in its outline ; whilst of its component parts, 
or petals, it is required that they should be broad (as supplying the best medium 
for exhibiting the beauty of the marking, whether of Carnation or Picotee), 
smooth both on the surface and at the edge, gently cupped, of great substance, 
pure sparkling white, and of rich lustrous colour or colours. 
It is not necessary nor desirable that the petals, in their rise tier on tier 
to the crown or centre of the flower, should decrease in breadth in an exact 
graduation, as I have sometimes seen prescribed, for were this so, notwith¬ 
standing its apparent approach to complete order and regularity, we should 
find we had exchanged the graceful variety, which is so great a charm in 
these lovely flowers, for a monotonous and unmeaning formality, odious and 
offensive. 
Of the Markings of the two flowers very differing requirements prevail, 
arising from the differing modes of distribution. In the Picotee^ it is imperative 
that the colour on the margin be uniformly distributed, whilst in the Carnation 
it is not necessary or desirable that the colour be uniformly distributed the same 
in every petal. 
The reason for this divergence is to be found in the leading characteristics of 
the flowers. In the one case, the Picotee, we find the colour distributed in curves^ ‘ 
forming, by a combination of the petals, a circle more or less perfect. From the 
extracts already given we learn, “ A curve is a line the direction of which is de¬ 
flected at every point according to a fixed law, whence its effect is to disperse in¬ 
stead of concentrating force ; and the impression produced by it will be that of 
gracefulness, gentleness.” It becomes thus necessary, imperative, that the mar¬ 
ginal colour should be uniform, inasmuch as irregularity in it would destroy the 
harmony needed to create the sense of “ gracefulness, gentleness.” 
In the Carnation we find the lines of colour disposed longitudinally, the 
same way with the length of the petal, and at right angles with the outline of 
the flower, and we learn from the same source that “ lines at right angles are 
necessarily harsh,” and “ a straight line is one the direction of which is always 
the same, whence its effect is to accumulate force upon a point, and the im¬ 
pression produced is that of asperity, brilliance, grandeur, power.” Now this 
asperity and harshness would be aggravated and made positively painful by an 
exact distribution of colour and its uniform arrangement in every petal. The eye 
cannot rest with pleasurable emotion on such an arrangement; it needs relief, and 
this we find in the charming variety presented by this flower, in the fact that, 
