452 
THE GARDENING- WORLD. 
March 16, 1889. 
The Carnation and Picotee Union and the 
National Carnation and Picotee Society, 
Southern Section. 
My much-esteemed and enthusiastic old friend, Mr. 
Wardill, suggests the publication of the schedules of 
prizes of these associations in the pages of The 
Gardening World, and 1 should much rejoice were 
it possible for the claims and merits of the two bodies 
to be thus brought into juxtaposition, and made 
apparent to the Carnation-loving world. But as I 
fear exigencies of space make this impossible, I hope 
I may be permitted briefly to recite and comment upon 
the salient features of each. 
First, the Union offers prizes for twenty-four 
collections, each of twelve blooms, in three classes, 
eight in each ; and for forty-five collections of six 
blooms, in five classes, nine in each, making a total of 
sixty-nine prizes for collections. No competitor can 
take part in more than five of these classes. Thus 
there is an assurance that, at the least, seventeen 
exhibits, if of merit, will be rewarded, with—the law of 
chances being considered—the strong probability that 
double that number will attain honours. 
Further, the Union gives 120 prizes for single 
specimens (eight in each of fifteen classes), and five 
premiers for the best bloom selected from the whole 
exhibition—one, that is, for each section. 
To the grading of these prizes the most careful 
consideration has been given, the aim being to pro¬ 
portion the amounts equitably to the relative merits 
of the several exhibits brought forward ; to extend the 
list, so that at least seven-eighths of possible com¬ 
petitions, if of merit, may be rewarded, and (with the 
condition that the exhibitor of twelve blooms may not 
enter in the same section for six) to make the com¬ 
petition free as the very air itself, unhampered by the 
noxious divisions of amateurs and traders, and the 
not much less baneful division of growers of large and 
small stocks respectively. Experience has amply demon¬ 
strated that these restrictions, like all supposed-to-be 
protective laws, are sources only of weakness, full of 
anomalies, and fruitful of evil. It would be easy to 
illustrate this by relatively recent experience, but I 
refrain. Another point upon which, on behalf of the 
Union, I lay stress and claim credit, is the proportional 
amount offered for the twelve and six blooms classes 
respectively. 
For eight prizes of twelve blooms each, ninety-six 
blooms in the total, £7 15s. are offered, giving an 
average reward of Is. 7 d. for each bloom shown, whilst 
for nine prizes of six blooms each, fifty-four blooms in 
the total, £6 15s. are offered, or an average of 2s. 6 d. 
per bloom. On the face of it this shows an advantage 
of 50 per cent, in favour of the shorter classes. But 
the anomaly is not real. The object of the Union, as 
of all societies worthy of support, has been to promote 
the advantage of the many, not the interest of the few, 
and yet less the individual. Therefore the Union has 
sought, and has successfully extended its influence over 
an area wide beyond compare in excess of any previously 
attempted. Kent and Surrey have joined hands upon 
the exhibition table with Lancashire and Yorkshire, 
Hants in the south-west, "Wales, and Scotland have been 
represented. Everyone conversant with the Carnation 
is aware the summer bloom culminates at very different 
dates in different localities. Speaking broadly, it may 
be said there is a week of difference with every sixty 
miles of northern latitude. Clearly, therefore, the less 
amount of bloom will be found on the outer area, 
whether from the decadence of the bloom, or from the 
fact that only a part, the earlier part, had got into 
flower, and therefore from this outer area the smaller 
number of flowers only may be produced. Yet, never¬ 
theless, the larger expense from the longer distance of 
travel must be incurred by visitors from these wider areas, 
hence the equity of recoup hy the relative larger reward. 
Another point I have to advance for the Union in 
its claim for public favour, is the fact that it provides 
a free luncheon on the day of exhibition for its 
supporters. I lay great stress upon this point. Where 
more effectually can we promote fraternal communion 
than in the assembly round a common table, to satisfy 
the needs of our common natures, and gratify the spirit 
with our common sympathies ? How many hasty 
resentments have paled and utterly died amid such 
influences ! How many momentarily stinging disap¬ 
pointments have ceased to throb ! How many by 
knowledge have found friends, where in ignorance they 
had feared foes ! The Union has proved something of 
this, and as the years roll on will prove more. 
Now I will deal with the schedule of the National. 
Fifty-six prizes are offered for collections of twenty-four, 
twelve, and six blooms or specimens respectively in 
eleven classes. Of these eleven classes one exhibitor 
may enter in seven, and if possessing strength, that is, 
if rich in the necessary accessories to cultivation, and 
able to command manipulative skill, may win seven 
first prizes, to the total value of £12 10s., whilst his 
less fortunate brother, limited to the four shorter 
classes, could win only £i 5s. 
In the case of the Union, the winner of the three 
first prizes for twelve blooms, if winner also of the two 
first prizes for six yellow grounds, which are open, 
would receive only £7 15 s. ; or if winner of each of 
the five first prizes for six blooms, also possibly within 
the reach of one exhibitor, £6 5s. As against the 
nine prizes offered for collections by the Union in the 
several classes, the longest number of the National is 
six ; as against the 120 prizes for single specimens, the 
National proffers seventy-five ; and as against the five 
prizes for premier blooms, two. Finally, the National, 
by these arrangements, creates facilities for the 
monopoly of the prize fund by one exhibitor to 
an extent varying from twenty-five to thirty per 
cent, of the whole ; whilst the utmost attained by the 
ablest and most fortunate of the exhibitors in the 
Union was thirteen per cent, in the first two years 
only ; and this, in the last two years, as the amount 
offered had been materially extended, fell first to 
eleven and then to nine per cent, respectively. To 
sum up, these inequalities of the National have shown 
that whilst the exhibitor can put into his pocket more 
than one-fourth part of the whole sum awarded, of 
thirteen competitors in the six blooms class, upon one 
occasion eight went empty-handed away. 
Thus far I have dealt with the merits and claims of 
the two associations as affected by the arrangements for 
the annual meeting only ; but this, important as it is, 
by no means exhausts the subject. It has always been, 
and probably will ever remain, that only a fractional 
number of lovers aud cultivators of the Carnation —and 
relatively a small fraction—can be moved to all the 
stirring incitements of exhibition; whilst the im¬ 
mense proportion, though interested to the point of 
watching from year to year, and intelligently noting 
new developments and the progress made, will keep 
their souls in peace outside the arena of competition. 
For all such friends the Union arranges that value in 
the shape of plants shall annually be sent for the 
amount subscribed ; and as the promoters of the asso¬ 
ciation desire that its work may be more than a passing 
spasm, with the close of each year we issue with a 
statement of its accounts, list of subscribers, and the 
official awards, an elaborate report by a wide circle of 
correspondents upon the incidence of the season, good 
flowers seen or grown, and whatever else may have 
been of interest in connection with the flower, bringing 
on and completing from year to year its history to 
date. 
It may be that, to some, in thus referring to and 
pressing home the lessons to be drawn from the present 
circumstances of the two associations, I may be thought 
invidious ; yet even at that risk I cannot shrink from 
the task. Let the difficulties which beset the Union in 
its beginning be forgotten. Turn we only to the facts 
of the present day. Success has been attained by 
“leaps and bounds,” dwarfing all former experience into 
insignificance. This success has been attained by 
keeping ourselves in touch with popular sympathy, by 
subordinating individual interest to the advantage of 
the many, and making every arrangement in the full 
light of day ; and very clearly experience shows that the 
Union, at no distant future, may have an appointed 
staff and experimental garden to continue and enlarge 
a work it has been the greatest satisfaction of my life 
to have been permitted, in a small way, to begin.— 
E. S. Dodwell , The Cottage, Stanley Road, Oxford. 
The Old Double Crimson Velvet Primrose. 
History does not seem to give any clue to the exact 
origin of the double Primroses, varieties of Primula 
vulgaris. Most or all of them are so old that a halo of 
mystery surrounds them. From nine to a dozen 
distinct forms or colour varieties are in cultivation, 
but few collections can boast of the whole of this 
number. In some old-fashioned gardens a considerable 
number may be found planted about in the herbaceous 
borders or in beds, thriving and flowering annually 
with great freedom during March and April. As the 
weather gets warm, and the sun gains in power, their 
flowers at last fade. The northern or western parts of 
the country with a moist climate are more favourable to 
their well-being than southern districts, where the 
plants are liable to suffer through drought when they 
should be making growth. The double kinds in culti¬ 
vation vary with white, sulphur, yellow, lilac, salmon, 
plum-purple, mauve-crimson, and crimson-velvet. We 
are indebted to Mr. T. S. "Ware, Hale Farm Nurseries, 
Tottenham, for an opportunity of figuring the latter. 
It is best known under the name of the Old Double 
Crimson Velvet, and is really a beautiful Primrose, 
fully double, rich in colour, and handsome. Pompadour 
is a name sometimes given to it. "What must be grati¬ 
fying to hardy plant lovers is that the double varieties 
are as fragrant as the single. It would be a great loss 
to the hardy flower garden should any of the kinds be 
allowed to die out and become lost. They all delight 
in rich, moist, and otherwise good garden soil, and in 
the sunny south must be planted in a somewhat shady 
position. 
Double and Yellow Hyacinths. 
In the Rev. G. Henslow’s historical note on Hyacinths 
in The Gardening World (p. 435) I find two errors, 
to which I beg to call attention. These mistakes are 
not unusual, as they are to be found in many books, 
having been copied from one to another. In point of 
time under cultivation the double Hyacinths are almost 
as old as the single ones, figures of double varieties 
being found already in the Florilegium of Swertius 
(1612) and in the Hortus Eystettensis of Besler (1613), 
and in different other books on horticulture of the 
Primrose, Double Crimson Velvet. 
