170 
THE FLOBIST AND POMOLOQIST. 
[ August, 
“ I fancy chance, after all, has more to do with success than any regular system. If I 
could see a clear defined theory to follow out which would lead to certain results, I should be 
comparatively happy. Till then, I cannot but be of opinion that nine-tenths of our writers 
on the subject are merely penning the results of one experiment, and not the series.” 
“I have cultivated Carnations for about six years [writes a second correspondent], and 
with very indifferent success, though I have taken the greatest pains with them. I have an 
iindue proportion run both in rich, middling, and poor compost, both in the open ground and 
i^pots. Would you be good enough to say what compost you think least likely to cause this 
defect, and whether you consider want of shading from powerful suu when the buds are 
swelling could have anything to do with it ? 
“Last season I grew my plants in composts of three different degrees of richness, ranging 
from two-thirds loam and one-third old dung, tln*ough one-half loam, one-half dung, to one- 
third loam and two-thirds dung, with the result that the compost of two-thirds loam and 
one-third dung, and that of one-third loam and two-thirds dung, gave a slight proportion run, 
whilst in the compost of half-loam and half-dung a very large proportion was run. Would 
you consider the undecayed fibre in sods twelve months dug injurious? Do you think it 
would be better to have it picked out?” 
Twenty-five years ago tlie late Mr. Newhall, of Woolwicli, in reply to very 
similar complaints, wrote :— 
“ The experience and observation of some years incline me to reject the idea that com¬ 
posts in any material degree either induce or prevent the propensity to sport observable in 
the Carnation, which we tei’m ‘running.’ I have, by way of experiment, grown them in 
soils of various enrichment, from pure sandy loam to unalloyed decomposed animal manures, 
with about equal results in that respect. 
“ Take a given number of plants propagated from the same original, pot them into the 
same pot, and some will probably be run; I cannot, therefore, understand why, if the com¬ 
post were in fault, the effect should be partial.I view it simply as a natural tendency 
to sport (observable in other flowers besides the one in question), and though that inclination 
most frequently is to return to the natural self-colour of the original type, yet instances 
are not wanting of its taking an opposite direction; thus Ely’s Lady Ely, R.F., is a sport 
from Ely’s Duke of Bedford, C.B., as Fletcher’s Duchess of Devonshire, R.F., is from 
Gregory’s King Alfred C.B,; while Puxley’s Prince Albert, classed as aP.P.B.,is often a very 
high-coloured, C.B. and has positively sported to an S.B. Moreover, it does not follow that, 
because the one or two leading blooms which the plant is alone suffered by florists to bear 
happen to be run. that the lower ones, if they had been permitted to remain, woiild have been 
in that condition.” 
At the same time and on the same subject I wrote, “ I regret that I am unable 
to offer any satisfactory solution of the problem proposed, the running of Carna¬ 
tions being one of those subjects which seem to defy explanation ; and hitherto 
experiments have been so loosely conducted, or under such varying circumstances, 
that no positive deduction can be obtained from them. My impression is that 
Carnations are run more frequently by the use of crude material than from any 
other cause. For instance, the loam has not been sufficiently ameliorated by the 
action of the atmosphere, or the manure not sufficiently decomposed, or the 
mechanical arrangement of the soil has prevented a proper drainage, and the 
removal of the fibre is likely to lead to this.*’ 
During the twenty-five years which have passed since the above was written, 
I am not aware that any new facts have been accumulated, warranting other con- 
* 
elusions than those given. Assuredly, a compost in which animal matters formed 
one-half of its constituents must be stimulating to a degree highly prejudical, 
if not fatal, to vegetable health, whatever may be or w’’hatever may have been 
supposed to have been its influence on the “ running ” of the flowers. No error 
of the elder florists was so marked as their inclination to use, and habitually to pre- 
