116 
THE FLORIST’S JOURNAL. 
barber of Enfield, who was equally eminent for dressing Pinks 
and Periwig's, and who succeeded in convincing a Cornish baronet 
that old wigs were the best manure for his fields. So convinced 
was the baronet of this, that Kit procured and sent to him no 
fewer than two thousand in one week. The result is not known, 
but if we are to judge of Kit’s own experiment of manuring his 
Pinks and Carnations with horse-dung, parings of hoofs, and 
scales and chips of iron, we may infer that there was not more 
fertility in the wigs, as a manure, than there was acumen in the 
heads by which they were worn, till they absorbed the full maxi¬ 
mum of grease. At page 12 there is given an outline of the 
dressing of a Carnation, which Mr. Hogg assures us he never 
practises ; and we can believe him, for we never saw such fine 
Carnations in the pans, at a show, as we have seen, redolent of 
simple nature, in the garden of Mr. Hogg. We suppose that 
when this work was first published, it produced “ une grande sen¬ 
sation ” among the peccant florists ; but we suppose they have 
forgotten it now, and returned to the tweezers and the bodkin. 
It should seem, from this dressing, that the points in a Carnation 
in most esteem with the florists are all points of form ; and indeed 
the colourings are so varied that it is difficult to say which of 
them is the most beautiful. 
In dressing the Dahlia a somewhat different mode of treatment 
is resorted to; the size, colour, and symmetry of the petals are 
easily obtained, and may be seen in many a cottage garden. The 
only point that remains for the florist is, therefore, what is called 
the perfection of the eye ; and the maximum of perfection here is, 
that there should be no eye at all, but merely a central point around 
which the petals are arranged. Very choice blooms, in every other 
respect, are apt to be deficient here, and show a little spot of un¬ 
changed anthers in the centre of the flower. The dressing consists 
in plugging up this space with the central petals of another flower 
of the same colour, trimmed at the lower ends to such size 
and shape as may be wanted, and then stuck in with gum or some 
other adhesive matter. If the blooms come to the show in a very 
short time after the performance of this operation, the fraud does 
not tell so openly*, and can be detected only by a close examination 
of the individual petals. But if a considerable time elapses the false 
petals begin to fade, and the fraud is detected at once. No longer 
ago than last summer, we happened to take a peep at an exhibition 
by a Society of considerable name in the purlieus of the metropolis : 
