April 24, 1909. 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
263 
n the raising of varieties and in their 
uccessful cultivation. 
Previous to the time that Mr. Smith 
undertook this work as a hobby, the 
hoice Carnations in gardens were largely 
onfined to the race known as show Car- 
lations and Picotees. The former con- 
isted of the bizarres and flakes, which 
rere the highest ideals of the Carnation 
grower in former times. White-ground 
bcotees had practically been brought to 
perfection about a hundred years ago by 
he old florists of this country'. Both 
hese ty'pes continue to be grown by the 
pecialists and those connected with the 
National Carnation and Picotee Society, 
>ut it required a specialist to be success- 
ul in their cultivation, as the system of- 
aising them had led to the weakening of 
he constitution of the plant. 
At the same time the old growers had 
jeen struggling to rear a race of yellow- 
ground Picotees with a small amount of 
success. This type continued much about 
she same delicate exotic, as it was styled 
by the celebrated Thomas Hogg, of Pad¬ 
dington, early in the nineteenth century'. 
Mr. Smith practically' came on the scene 
ivhen Carnations were about this stage, 
and this he did about eighteen or twenty- 
rears ago when he procured all the best 
of the types in cultivation with the object 
of improving them by proceeding on 
somewhat different lines and crossing with 
a view to obtain plants of vigorous con¬ 
stitution. 
We well remember the beautiful self 
border Carnations which first made their 
appearance as a result of the work done 
at The Warren. Curiously enough the 
Carnation growers in this country over¬ 
looked the value and beauty' of self Car¬ 
nations of hardy constitution suitable for 
border culture. The first aim of Mr. 
Smith was to encourage the culture of 
border varieties, in the form of self col¬ 
ours, namely', flowers wholly white, pink, 
rose, scarlet and crimson. 
These self border Carnations showed 
that it was possible that anyone could 
grow them and obtain flowers for use in 
the home just as many had been doing 
with the old Clove and one or two others 
of that class. At the present day' there 
is an immense number of Carnations in 
'cultivation of some definite colour and 
which had been selected for the size and 
form of the flow'qr, as well as vigour of 
: constitution, thereby' enabling gardeners 
to propagate them annually' by' layering. 
At present, there are so many' in culti¬ 
vation that it would seem difficult to find 
a shade of colour that could be matched 
by something in cultivation. Neverthe¬ 
less, amongst Carnations, as amongst 
other flowers, there are many qualities to 
be got together in one and the same in¬ 
dividual. Even amongst first-class Car¬ 
nations most of them are v'eak in some 
property or other and that is a field that 
is still open for the w'orker. Mr. Smith 
and his gardener succeeded in imparting 
a wonderful constitution to the acquisitions 
obtained at The Warren. Instead of a 
puny shoot or two an abundance of vig¬ 
orous young shoots or grass, as the gar¬ 
dener terms it, is produced by each plant, 
so that one plant may' give rise to from 
six to a dozen or more during the course 
of a twelve month. 
Having been successful -with the self 
Carnations, which are now as highly 
valued for exhibition purposes as for out- 
Yellow-Ground Picotee Leonora. [Mac/aren and Sons. 
Yellow-Ground Picotee Antonio. \J\Laclaren and Sons. 
