TREATMENT OF THE CARNATION. 
195 
The perfecting of the anthers and their pollen is, indeed, the 
highest effort of vegetable life, the one most removed from ordi¬ 
nary growth, and therefore it requires more of the stimuli of heat 
and light, and less of those of soil and humidity, than any other 
portion of the growth. That this is a general fact is already 
pretty w r ell established by experience, but the present season is 
one the effects of which should be carefully watched and noted, 
especially in delicate and difficult cases, such as that of the Car¬ 
nation. The flowering season has been remarkable for the 
absence of heat and light, and consequently for the presence of 
their opposites ; and therefore the natural conclusion is, that 
those more delicately-produced seeds should be few and imper¬ 
fect ; yet it by no means follows from this that the blooms of the 
season should be dwarfed and imperfect; for as the diminution 
of the number of anthers increases that of the petals, so the 
weakening of fertile energy in the anthers should give greater 
expansion to the petals ; and so far as our observation has gone, 
the facts verify this for the present season. 
As Carnations are most deservedly favourite flowers, and as 
the treatment of them for mere growth and blooming is not a 
very difficult matter, far more are required for the satisfying of 
the public demand than can be obtained from seeds. 
The best general compost for Carnations consists of one part of 
yellow virgin loam, half a part of black mould, two parts of 
thoroughly-rotted horse-dung, with clean gritty sand, as an 
internal drainage ; and the quantity of this depends upon the 
nature of the loam ; these should be kept in a heap where the 
surface is slightly depressed, and worked and turned till they are 
thoroughly incorporated, and the whole compost has one general 
action. This will do for seeds, for layers and pipings, and for the 
plants when sufficiently grown and established for flowering. In 
obtaining seeds of plants so highly cultivated something more 
than the mere effort of nature is necessary. Care must be taken 
that the flowers expand well, and the pods increase equally on all 
sides. The pods have sometimes a tendency to stop short in their 
growth, and open at the edges of all the sepals, and sometimes to 
burst along one side. The general cause of this is too long a 
delay of that water, either by nature or art, which is necessary 
while the plants are in flower ; and indeed until the seed vessel 
has obtained its full size. The drought hardens the sepals, so 
