June t>, 1903. - 
The Gardening World 
GENERAL NOTICES. 
We would earnestly urge secretaries of societies to notify us as far in advance as possible as to dates of meetings, shows, etc. We desire to do all In our power to have these 
adequately represented in the columns of The Gardening World. 
We respectfully request our readers, when they write to persons or firms advertising in this paper, to mention that their advertisement was seen in The Gardening World 
T hey will thereby not only oblige this paper, but the advertisers. 
MOTTO FOR THE WEEK: 
“ How noiseless falls the foot of time, that only treads on flowers.” — W. R. Spencer. 
Weekly Prize 
FOR 
Short Articles. 
The Proprietors of The Gardening World 
will give a cash prize of Ten Shillings for 
THE BEST PARAGRAPH, or SHORT ARTICLE, sent 
by readers during the week. The Editor’s 
judgment must be considered final, and he will 
be at liberty to use any of the contributions 
sent in. The paragraph, or article, must not 
exceed one column in length, but the value, 
rather than the length, of the article will be 
considered in making the award. Competitors 
may send in items of news or comments on 
news; hints of practical interest to gar¬ 
deners of growers of plants, fruits, or flowers; 
successful methods of propagating plants 
usually considered difficult; or contributions 
ON ANT SUBJECT COMING WITHIN THE SPHERE 
of gardening proper. Letters should be 
addressed to The Editor, marked “ Competi¬ 
tion,” and posted not later than Friday night 
to ensure insertion in the issue of next week. 
The following Coloured 
Plates Have appeared:— 
March 14.—NEW CHINESE PRIMULAS. 
March 21.—A GROUP OF DAVALLIAS. 
March28 —TEA ROSE “ CHAMELEON,” 
and COOMBE CLIFFE GARDENS. 
April 4.-COLEUS THYRSOIDEUS. 
April 11.—PITCHER PLANTS. 
April 18.—CESTRUM SMITHII. 
April 25.—JAPANESE PIGMY TREE. 
May 2.-Half-Tone Plate of the ROCKERY 
AT WENTWORTH HOUSE. 
May 9.—Half-Tone Plate of another view 
of THE ROCKERY AT WENTWORTH 
HOUSE. 
May 2S.-Coloured Plate of SAXIFRAGA 
GRISEBACHII and A GROUP OF ALO 
CASIAS. 
May 30.—Coloured Plate of DENDROBIUM 
NOBH.E ROTUNDIFLORUM and D.n. 
NOBILIUS. 
Back numbers may be obtained from the 
publishers, price 2£d. post free. 
With the PRESENT ISSUE we present a 
Monochrome Plate of CALADIUMS. 
t^ E ™ EK we present a Plate of 
THE ROCKERY AT KEW. 
Views and Reviews. 
The American Carnation/* 
The Carnation is yet comparatively young 
in America, yet its cultivation lias made 
rapid strides within that limited period. Mr. 
Ward only commenced cultivating Carna¬ 
tions himself in 1890, but lie must have been 
very busy within that time and a great en¬ 
thusiast, for he has got together a mass of 
information concerning his favourite flower 
forming a book of 296 pages. It has not 
taken him all that time to> write the book, 
however, for, as he says in liis preface, it was 
some five- or six years ago in an unguarded 
moment that lie promised his friend, Mr. A. 
T. de la Mare, that he would writ© a work on 
the American Carnation. From what we 
have seen of it, he has fully equipped himself 
for the work, and carried out his promise to 
the letter. Of course, to' give a full account 
of the Carnation necessitates reference to the 
European literature of the subject, and lie 
has availed himself of many good authorities 
on, Carnations in Britain. 
In his chapter cn the origin and early his¬ 
tory of the Carnation the author says that 
the Carnation is sometimes erroneously 
called the Pink. Some.people make it still 
more emphatic than that by calling it the 
Carnation Pink ; and we know that in Scot¬ 
land the cottagers apply the name Pink to 
the garden Polyanthus, so that a. wide lati¬ 
tude must be allowed for popular names. 
The author rightly says that the Carnation is 
a native of Normandy, and early established 
itself in this country on the old Norman 
castles. It is, however, a native also'of South 
and East Punjaub, in India. He also- says 
that the original colour of the wild Carna¬ 
tion was either of “ flesh colour or a shade 
of pinkish mauve.” He might, however, 
have allowed a. little more latitude on this 
score for a variable plant like the Carnation, 
even in a wild state. Mr. F. N. Williams, 
who wrote a. monograph on the Carnation, 
which was published in the “ Journal of the 
Linnean Society of London,” says that the 
♦“The American Carnation: How to Grow It.' Illus¬ 
trated. By Charles Willis Ward, of the Cottage Gardens, 
Queens, New York. A. T. de La Marp, Printing ami 
Publi-hing Co., Ltd., 1903. Piice 14s. 7d. 
flowers in a wild state are rose, purple, or 
white. Certainly, where the first two colours 
exist in a wild plant it is almost certain that 
an albino would also occur. The story about 
the Carnation being used for flavouring 
daintv dishes in the time of Gerarde reminds 
us of the attempts of the Chrysanthemum 
fanciers to dish up and eat the flowers of 
their favourite some years ago, not only in 
this country, but also in America. Such was 
their love for the Chrysanthemum. 
The old question as to the meaning of 
Camatiorr-js here again discussed. Judging 
from what Shakespeare said of the Carna¬ 
tion, its cultivation in this country at that 
date must have made considerable advance. 
As a garden plant the Carnation was only 
introduced to America something over 100 
years ago, but, as in many other cases, the 
exact date was unrecorded. Possibly it may 
first have been taken over by amateurs in a 
private capacity for cultivation in their own 
gardens, and the memory of it would die 
with their owners. 
Very interesting is his discussion of the 
development of the Carnation in America. 
It seems that the Carnations in which our 
cousins delight belong to one strain only— 
namely, the tree Carnation, although that 
was not thd name under which it was 
originally introduced. Mr. Ward claims that 
the American Carnation is different from the 
English race, and had a different origin. How 
far that may be true we are not disposed to 
say, but think they could only be simply a 
different strain of the same species and pro¬ 
bably at a remote period having a common 
origin in a remontant or perpetual flowering 
variety. In this country we have several 
distinct strains of Carnations, including the 
florists’ Carnations and Picotees and the 
border varieties, which are very distinct and 
cf stronger constitution than the florists’ 
flower. We have not merely one strain of 
‘ tree Carnations, but two—namely, the 
ordinary winter flowering race and the 
Souvenir de la Malmaison type. 
The author claims that the American race 
was originated about the year 1840 by a 
French gardener named M. Dalmais, of 
Lyons, France. The work was continued by 
another Frenchman of Lyons, and the first 
of this race to reach America was taken 
