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THE POTENTILLA: ITS CULTURE AND PROPERTIES. 
about two thirds good staple loamy soil, preferring the turfy top spit, with one third of 
rotten cow or stable dung, adding about one measure of drift sand or other sharp grit to ten 
measures of the above. 
Those who are in the vicinity of rivers, mill heads, or other streams or sluices will find 
that the mud or alluvial deposit of such watercourses will be a most excellent substitute for 
maiden loam. We have grown our plants in the mud which is of necessity periodically 
cleaned out of the ditches in Plumstead marshes, for some few years with success, much 
better than we ever did in any loam we have been able to obtain in our neighbourhood. 
This mud is full of reeds and other aquatic plants, and when thrown up high and dry, 
those plants soon decay, and when thoroughly reduced to soil is not to be in any way dis¬ 
tinguished from a fine fat hazel loam. Certain friends of ours also, who live on the banks of 
the Ravensbourne, have for many years used the alluvial mud, the cleansing of a mill-head, 
and it is impossible to grow Carnations finer than they do. 
One hint on winter potting : do not make a hole in the soil in the pot, and so, as is too much 
the practice, plant with the roots in a perpendicular direction, but drawing shallow hollows 
on the surface, spread the roots as horizontally as possible, and after drawing the earth over 
them press it gently but firmly down in that position/'—A. 
THE PROPERTIES OF THE CARNATION. 
First. The flower should be not less than two and a half inches across. 
Second. The guard or lower petals, not less than six in number, must be broad, thick, and smooth 
on .the outside, free from notch or serrature, and lap over each other sufficiently to form a circular 
roseate flower, the more round the outline the better. 
Third. Each row of petals should be smaller than the row immediately under it; there should not 
be less than five or six rows of petals laid regularly, and the flower should rise and form a good bold 
centre or crown ; and in quantity should form half a ball. 
Fourth. The petals should be stiff, and slightly cupped. 
Fifth. The ground should be pure snow-white, without specks of colour. 
Sixth. The stripes of colour should be clear and distinct, not running into one another, nor confused, 
but dense, smooth at the edges of the stripes, and well defined. 
Seventh. The colours must be bright and clear, whatever they may be; if there be two colours, the 
darker one cannot be too dark, or form too strong a contrast with the lighter. With scarlet the 
perfection would be a black ; with pink there cannot be too deep a crimson ; with lilac, or light purple, 
the second colour cannot be too dark a purple. 
Eighth. If the colours run into the white and tinge it, or the white is not pure, the fault is very 
great; and pouncy spots or specks are highly objectionable. 
Ninth. The pod of the bloom should be long and large, to enable the flower to bloom without 
bursting it; but this is rare ; they generally require to be tied about half way, and the upper part of 
the calyx opened down to the tie of each division; yet there are some which scarcely require anv 
assistance, and this is a very estimable quality.— Glenny's Properties of Flowers. 
THE POTENTILLA: ITS CULTURE AND PROPERTIES. 
By Mr. G. GLENNY. F.H.S. 
^HIS showy perennial stands a fair chance of being “ elevated to the rank of a florist’s flower, ” and 
A if a few of our growers of hardy subjects would set about raising seedlings, we should soon have 
large round flowers without indentation, and distinct variations in the colours. Mr. Hopwood of 
Twickenham once found among his bed of Potentillas the remarkable variety called Hopwoodiana— 
one of the most showy of the family; but he never could discover whether it was a seedling or a 
sport from one of the varieties already in the collection. We incline to think it was a seedling, be¬ 
cause its form and size were both superior to most of the varieties known before. Had this plant been 
produced by any one of our known florists, or been exhibited in its seedling state, or before it was 
let out at the Horticultural shows, it had been a little fortune. As it was, it produced but little; it 
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