1S75. ] 
CARNATIONS AND PICOTEES. 
223 
was theirs of right in the days of yore. Of Rose-flakes, no't one of those which 
delighted our eyes and held pre-eminence sixteen years since retained its posi¬ 
tion ; and John Keet , a variety quite new to me, was assigned the .first place, and 
I am bound to say, from my experience, fairly merits it. 
In Picotees one only, Mrs. Dodwell , red, heavily edged, a variety my friend 
Mr. Charles Turner did me the honour to name after my wife some twenty years 
back, remained^ and I am pleased to say had added excellence to its style by the 
lapse of years. 
These were the old varieties I grew, and I am delighted to say, excepting only 
the two I have named above, they fully came up to their well-remembered 
beauties. When living at Derby, I was frequently told Curzon did not develop 
the character in the South which belonged to it in the locality of its 
origin, statements which, coming from the sources they did, I was bound 
to give credence to ; but I am happy now to be able to assure any of your 
readers inclined to enter upon the cultivation of these beautiful flowers, that 
there is an exception to this, for though my stock—one pair only—was so limited, 
Curzon bloomed in a character I had never known surpassed, even though I had 
grown thirtyfold more in number. Dreadnought also, a seedling from, and 
sometimes so closely following the style of Curzon as to be indistinguishable 
from it, though at others markedly distinct, was as fine in character as the first 
year I bloomed it, wdien sent to me as an unproved seedling. Premier , P.F., 
Squire Meynell, P.F., John Bayley , S.F., and Sportsman , S.F., I have already 
referred to. Mayor of Nottingham (Taylor), a purple-flake, singularly beautiful 
as an unnamed seedling in ’58 and ’59, had fallen off; yet, nevertheless, it is a 
variety that should be grown in the most limited of collections. 
Of varieties of Carnations previously unknown to me, I grew Mars (Hextall), 
S.B., a variety raised, in the last years of his green old age, by my dear departed 
friend ; two seedling Crimson Bizarres, Eccentric Jack and lamplighter , raised 
by Mr. Wood, of York ; two seedling Pink Bizarres, raised by Mr. Thomas 
Bower, of Dirkhill, Bradford, as yet unnamed ; and John Keet , rose-flake. 
Mars is a seedling from Curzon, the habit of growth of which it follows, is 
full of rich distinct colour, and must be grown by every one who values distinct¬ 
ness and first-class quality ; nevertheless, it is rather a break back from Curzon 
than a step forward, showing to those who can remember it—alas ! how few re¬ 
main who can—the qualities of Curzon’s parent, Walmsey’s William the Fourth, 
rather than the pure white and brilliant colours of Curzon. The excessive 
moisture of the blooming-time was undoubtedly prejudicial to the development 
of pure white grounds and distinct markings, and we may expect in an average 
season to escape these drawbacks. But I am bound to set this down, or make 
myself, what I never yet was, an unfaithful chronicler of my impressions. The 
two varieties of Mr. Wood’s are both good, Eccentric Jack having the best-formed 
petal, and Lamplighter the more vivid colours. 
The two seedlings sent me by Mr. Bower are singularly novel and very 
