CULTURE OF THE CARNATION. 
257 
Culture of the Carnation. —This is a plant of much value 
amongst florists. It appears to have been totally unknown to the 
ancients, in its cultivated state, although it has from time immemorial 
been a favorite flower in Europe. Gerard, in 1597, received it from 
Poland. It has been occasionally found in a wild state, in England, 
growing on rocks and walls. The generally received opinion, how¬ 
ever, is, that it is a native of Germany and Italy, where it is much 
cultivated. In the beginning of the seventeenth century, there seems 
to have been about fifty good sorts known; and the most popular culti¬ 
vator at that time, was a florist of the name of Tugge, who lived in 
Westminster. Early in the eighteenth century, as many as 350 or 
360 valuable sorts were cultivated, which appear to almost equal our 
catalogues of the present day. Hogg, in his Treatise, published in 
1820, enumerates the same quantity of sorts then in his possession. 
About the beginning of the last century, the first florists Society was 
formed, and shortly after several more, which awarded prizes to 
successful competitors, and which at once accounts for so large an 
assortment of Carnations at that time. 
The florists of the present day divide the Carnation into the follow¬ 
ing classes:— 
1. Bizarres, (from the French, signifying irregular, odd,) which 
consist of those whose flowers are striped with irregular spots and 
stripes, having two colours on a white ground. 
2. Flakes .—Such as have only one colour on a white ground, 
being in large stripes going quite through the petals. 
3. Picotees .—Such as have a fringed edge, usually a white ground, 
spotted or pounced with scarlet, red, purple, or other colours. 
The following are considered by florists the requisite properties of 
a good Carnation :— 
The flower-stem should be straight and strong, growing not less 
than thirty inches high, nor more than forty-five. The flower should 
not be less than three inches in diameter, and should be supported by 
the stem without drooping. The calyx should be strong, about an 
inch long, firm enough at the top to keep the base of the petals in a 
circular body, rising about half an inch above the calyx. The petals 
should be long, broad, and stiff, easy to expand, and make free flowers; 
the outer circle of petals, turning off gracefully, in a horizontal direc¬ 
tion, and substantial enough ably to support the interior petals, which 
should decrease in size as they approach the centre, and with them 
the centre should be well filled up. They should lie over each in such 
a manner as that their beauties can meet the eye at once; their edges 
should be perfectly entire, without either notch, fringe, or indenture; 
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