1876.] 
ON RAISING NEW VARIETIES OE THE CARNATION AND PICOTEE. 
161 
the resort to single or semi-double flowers for the purpose of obtaining pollen, 
on the ground that pollen could rarely be found in double flowers. I desire 
emphatically to record my protest against such a dogma, and to repeat what I 
have already stated, that no improvement can possibly be hoped for, save by 
starting from the most advanced point as yet attained. And it is a great 
fallacy to assert that pollen cannot be obtained from double flowers. Let the 
would-be operator know how to seek it, and I will guarantee he will rarely seek in 
vain; whilst if properly manipulated, such varieties will rarely refuse to bear 
seed. 
My practice is, a short time before the flowers proposed for seed-bearing are 
fully expanded, or the anthers or pollen-bearing vessels have burst (covered with 
fine dust), should the variety be very full of petals, to remove a few of the inner 
ones and the anthers, with a pair of small tweezers or scissors, being careful to 
remove each petal singly, and leaving the horns, or styles, untouched. Then, as 
the styles show they are expanded at the ends, apply pollen from the variety you 
desire to fertilise with, the best time for the operation being about 9 a.m., as at 
that time the heat of the sun will not probably have dried the viscid moisture to 
be found at the points of the styles, and without which no fertilisation is likely to 
result. To prevent this evil—the drying of the secretion on the points of the 
styles—it is a good practice to shade the flower, which will then be preserved 
much longer in a suitable condition for the operator. Should it, however, be 
found that from any cause the points of the styles have become dry, it will be 
well to cut off the extreme ends the night before you desire to fertilise the 
variety; and if the flower is not very old, the cross will, as a rule, be certain to 
take effect. 
The great difficulty experienced by the beginner is the finding of the pollen, 
some varieties producing very little. A few sorts, however, as Sir Joseph Paxton, 
S.B., and Brunette, Bed Picotee, carry it well up in the centre of the flower, 
where it will be readily distinguished. In other varieties, the pollen will be found 
partly down in the pod; and again, in some other varieties, though none has been 
perceptible to the eye, I have found it by introducing my camel’s-hair pencil into 
the bottom of the pod, and working it amongst the petals, thus showing tolerably 
conclusively that in such varieties the pollen is quickly shed. 
A great enemy to pollen is the thrips, and where this abounds, it is nearly impos¬ 
sible to obtain any. In such circumstances, my practice is to cut the flower I 
desire to use as the male parent before complete expansion^ and permit it to 
develop itself in water in a cool room, and then I have generally been successful. 
A very little pollen will be effective, if properly applied. For this purpose, as 
I should have said before, I use a small camel’s-hair pencil, damping it before 
commencing by drawing it through my lips, and to obviate the retention of too 
much moisture, passing it again between my finger and thumb, thus obtaining a 
Jine pointy with which I can collect the pollen from a single anther at once with¬ 
out waste ; and this, properly applied, will be found sufficient to impregnate one 
p 
