440 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
March 10, 1888. 
FLORICULTURE. 
The Yellov-ground Carnation. 
A Retrospect and a Forecast. 
In the whole range of flowers which have been the 
special object of the florist’s care, I know of none which 
has more attracted his attention, won his admiration, 
or, until very recent time, disappointed his hopes in an 
equal degree with the subject of this paper. Hogg, 
described by the late Dr. Horner as the first to introduce 
the yellow Picotee, writing at the end of 1819," is 
almost pathetic in the few words with which he closes 
his chapter on its management. “I confess I am at a 
loss to say what compost is proper to grow’ it in, and 
yet, after all, the fault perhaps does not rest with the 
soil, but the climate, which, take it the year round, is 
too harsh and moist for this delicate exotic.” The 
note has the ring almost of despair—yet still an effort 
of cultivation was maintained by a few. 
Twenty—thirty years rolled on, and in the Midland 
Florist for 1848, Dr. Horner, speaking of himself as 
one who had “relinquished the active cultivation of 
flowers, but yet felt an equal interest in the pursuit,” 
addressed a stirring appeal to his fellows, urging that 
the yellow Picotee should no longer be allowed to 
remain in comparative neglect and obscurity, even to 
the point in some cases of being discarded, “ because 
of its many, although remediable defects.” 
Exhorting from analogy, Dr. Horner continued, 
“How great, constant, and persevering the efforts 
that for above twenty years have been directed to the 
improvement of the white-ground Picotee ; and how 
complete has necessarily been the success of such 
endeavour ! So nearly, indeed, has perfection been 
attained in its form and limited colour, that the circle 
for further improvement is narrowed to the almost 
extreme point; so that although the new sorts that 
are yearly ushered in, present something of advance¬ 
ment it is true, yet they exhibit but little of difference, 
and still less of distinction. 
“I would applaud the attention which has been 
bestowed upon this fine flower, and which has raised it 
from its once serrated, pounced, and striped state, to 
its present faultless condition. This ought florists to 
have done, but they ought not to have left the other 
undone ; for in what, it may well be inqirired, does the 
yellow Picotee differ in comparison with its fellow— 
the white one ? 
‘ "Write them together, it’s as fair a name ; 
Sound them, it doth become the mouth as well! ’ 
“ Hay, in truth, it possesses attractions and properties 
which must be acknowledged to be superior to its 
congener. 
“Thus it evinces a much greater variety in the colour 
of its edging ; for there are already purple of every hue, 
red, scarlet, rose, crimson, chocolate, &c., admitting 
also of heavy as well as light lacing. It possesses 
moreover, in its yellow ground, the capability of every 
shade, from primrose to deep yellow ; whilst there are, 
furthermore, plain yellow varieties, or such as are 
without lacing, which constitute of themselves a beau¬ 
tiful and admired class of flowers. Hence does the 
yellow Picotee present altogether an amount of contrast, 
variety, combination, and singleness of colour, which 
in all fairness entitles it to be esteemed the most lovely, 
striking, and beautiful of its tribe ; whilst the common 
Picotee admits but of one ground colour, that of white, 
its edging being purple, rose or red. 
“Because then, of the countless combinations and 
diversity, both in the ground colour and the lacing, of 
which it is capable ; because of all its natural beauties 
and loveliness as a flower ; and especially, be it added, 
because of its yet existing imperfections, let the effort, 
too long delayed, be in earnest commenced to raise the 
flower to its true position—the chiefest of the Diantlius 
class, and to constitute it the most perfect, as it is the 
most beautiful and attractive. ” 
The extract is somewhat lengthy, but it should not 
be less. The reader will note just forty years have 
rolled over since it was written. He will find in it also 
some very pregnant suggestions bearing upon recent 
controversy—the reference to the “once [so recently 
only as twenty years since] serrated, pounced, and 
striped state ” of the white-ground Picotee, and the yet 
more pronounced eulogy of the yellow self. But this 
is a digression. Such an appeal from such a writer could 
not be without its effect—marked effect. 'Well I re¬ 
member it! Yet for some years the result was very 
slight. Various and diverse causes contributed to this. 
* Hogg’s first edition on the Carnation was published 
in February, 1S20. 
In the first place, thanks to the barbarous fiscal re¬ 
gulations which prevailed up to the earlier years of the 
forties, except in the gardens of the most opulent— 
and there, in mode and fact alike, generally imperfect 
and inadequate—glass had no place; its use was unknown. 
The coverings of the florist were of wood or oiled calico, 
or other opaque substance. Such conditions were very 
unfavourable to the due acclimatising of the “delicate 
exotic ” spoken of by Hogg. Next, the mighty mass of 
florists had little or no knowledge of fertilisation. 
Seed was difficult of attainment, and when obtained, its 
issue in the main was deficient alike in stamina and 
in those properties sought for and to such a large 
extent won in the white grounds. Lastly, no one of 
the leading raisers of the day, some six or eight well- 
known men, turned from their work amongst the white 
grounds to the development of the yellow. 
They knew, notwithstanding the weight and authority 
due to the opinion of Dr. Horner, that the “faultless 
condition ” was yet susceptible of mighty exaltation, and 
the events o f the seven succeeding years placed their 
inference beyond all question, and would not be diverted 
from the harvest within their grasp. They knew the 
subtle influence of pollen ; they had realised the long 
and]toilsome effort needed to emancipate their favourites 
from the pounced and striped and serrated condition of 
the original, and] place it upon the threshold of that 
ethereal purity it has since attained, and they would 
not risk the possible evils of mixing their stocks with 
such questionable elements. That alone I believe held 
them back. Their appreciation of the yellow ground 
was quick : indifference had no part in the matter. 
Others, however, gave attention to the work, and after 
some time, in the closing years of the fifties, the late 
Mr. Richard Smith, of Witney, proclaimed that he had 
solved the problem—his plants were hardy, his flowers 
smooth, and their markings definite and regular. 
Unhappily, independent judgment did not fully confirm 
the assumption, and yet more unhappily, after an¬ 
nouncing the loss of some two or three of the more 
promising varieties, Mr. Smith was seized -with fatal 
illness, and died. The flowers were, however, not left 
uncared for ; Mr. J. D. Hextall, of Ashby-de-la-Zouch, 
one of the most genial, most devoted of florists of his 
day, journeyed thence to Witney, and took all remain¬ 
ing to his own loving care. No care, however, sufficed 
to set them upon their feet, and they never passed into 
other hands. 
In my little book I have told of the difficulties 
which, with me, beset their cultivation at Clapham, 
and it was not until I was brought here that any 
approximate success waited upon our efforts. In 1884 
we got seed which first gave us issue with marked 
vitality of growth. Unhappily, in our anxiety to attain 
this needful standpoint, we had pollened the seed 
parent with some of our most robust seifs, with the 
result that ninety per cent, went to seifs—glorious 
pinks, roses, purples, andj others—so in our next 
attempt we moderated the pollen influences, with very 
promising results. But it was not to speak of myself 
this retrospect was designed ; since we have been where 
the yellow-ground would grow, we have sought to 
possess every good thing attainable. We have had the 
best, or supposed to be the best, of the fine batch first 
bloomed at the Royal Nursery, Slough, in 1878 ; we 
have had Dr. Abercrombie’s grand variety, the King of 
the Yellows ; the best from Mr. Hooper’s collection at 
Bath ; Mr. Wallington’s glorious Florence, so certain to 
be of note, not only from its beauty as a flower, but 
from its healthy growth and seed-bearing power ; some 
seedlings from friends who were desirous I should give 
them a trial; above all the glorious batch sent me 
from Kilmurry House, Waterford, Ireland, by Mrs. 
Gyles. Here, first in my experience of yellow grounds, 
I noted the feature referred to by me in the Annual 
Report of the Carnation and Picotee Union, “their dis¬ 
tinct advance towards the longitudinal markings of the 
Carnation,” the true direction, as I venture to believe, 
of the glorious and gorgeous beauty of the yellow 
grounds. In his appeal, Dr. Horner speaks with 
perfect accuracy, as such a writer was sure to speak, of 
the “Yellow Picotee,” for that was the state of the 
flower at the moment of his writing, as it was the 
original of all the family of Dianthus caryophyllus — 
the pounced, spotted, striped, or serrated condition of 
that we now term the Picotee—almost within living 
memory. 
But for 100 years before an almost modern race of 
florists had sought to evolve the beauty and grace of 
the curvilinear lines in the Picotee, our fathers had 
found flakes and bizarres, the longitudinal markings, 
of the Carnation, and with unerring judgment had 
promptly recognised their masculine force and beauty. 
No such indication had been reached when Dr. Homer 
wrote. I have seen it only within the past two years. 
Therein will, I feel persuaded, be found the full 
development of the gorgeous beauty of the yellow 
ground. 
There is a glory of the moon, and a glory of the sun. 
The white grounds, more especially in the case of the 
more lightly edged Picotees, refined and chastened to a 
point of almost ethereal purity,' lift our admiration 
into the highest region of thought; so a blotch, or bar, 
or transverse line is an insufferable defacement. But 
the glory of the yellow gives warmth and life, the glow 
of action with its innumerable possibilities and 
diversities ; and, so far from suffering, will gain in its 
beauty, from points positively fatal to the beautiful in 
its congener. No one could look with pleasurable 
emotion on a shaded ground which should be white, 
nor could the eye rest with satisfaction on the transverse 
lines running from the curvilinear edging on the same 
colour ; the harmony of the outline and the purity of 
the ground would equally suffer, but similar results do 
not follow in the case of the yellows. In them, even at 
this moment, I do not hesitate to say, even where the 
curvilinear edging is distinctly indicated if not attained, 
the transverse lines give life and variety incomparably 
preferable to the light curvilinear markings which have 
been pointed to as a high mark of attainment. Curvi¬ 
linear markings will have their place in the glory of the 
yellow grounds beyond all doubt, but the more valued will 
be the rich deep breadths, shot, feathered, flamed or 
flashed with one or more colours redolent of variety, 
almost voluptuous in beauty. Longitudinal markings 
will be as much esteemed in the yellow grounds, and 
will occupy the same place with similar markings in 
the present day amongst the white, and to these may 
be added pure seifs in an almost infinite variety of 
shades, and others unmarked otherwise than with shade 
upon their grounds. 
Few who have known the infinite delight with which, 
during a long floricultural life, I have watched and 
tended the white grounds, will assume me indifferent 
to their beauty—words seem faint whenever I attempt 
to express my appreciation of their value—yet com¬ 
paratively recent experience has compelled me to feel 
that in the possibilities of a relatively near future, there 
is a glory to be reached in the development of the 
yellow grounds, as far surpassing that of the white as 
the glory of the sun outshines the pale rays of the 
moon. May my brothers speedily enter upon the 
harvest \—E. S. Dodwell, Stanley Road, Oxford. 
-- 
PASSIPLORA CCERULEA, 
“EYNSFORD GEM.” 
This is otherwise described as a new perpetual-flowering 
Passion Flower, and rightly merits the title, as it has 
flowered continually with Messrs. H. Cannell & Sons, 
Swanley, Kent, for the last two years, which is about 
the time elapsed since they received it from a friend on 
the coast of Devonshire, where this and its allies 
flourish in the open air without any protection. It will 
be remembered that the white sweet-scented Constance 
Elliott also originated in Devonshire. The illustration 
shows the sprays of lateral branches as they depend 
from the roof of a warm greenhouse in the Messrs. 
Cannell’s nursery, where it is flowering beautifully at 
the present time. 
Besides the original plant on the roof of the house 
mentioned, there are several younger and smaller 
plants in pots which are also flowering. The growth 
and foliage of the plant is similar to that of the type, 
but a greater profusion of flowers is developed at the 
end of lateral branches, which hang down gracefully 
and terminate in a slightly leafy raceme of flowers ; 
and were it not for the large bracts, these terminal 
racemes would bear considerable resemblance to the 
racemose habit of P. raeemosa. The habit and other¬ 
wise intermediate character of the foliage, also suggests 
that the latter species is one of the parents from which 
it was derived. The sepals and petals are purplish 
red, shaded with rose, while the corona is white, being 
made all the more prominent and conspicuous by the 
dark back-ground. The flowers are large, and from the 
free-growing, free-flowering propensities of the plant, 
it is eminently suitable for festooning the roofs 'of 
greenhouses. 
Another remarkable trait in this climber is, that 
during the whole time it has been at Swanley no 
insects have been known to infest it, a circumstance 
very much in its favour. 
