Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 12.djvu/266

254 254 HORTICULTURE [FLOWERS. the edge, but is the more perfect the less it is so feathered, and is quite faulty if it breaks through to the outer circle ; fourth, the margin, which is green or grey or white. These circles should be about equal in width and clearly defined, and the nearer they are to this standard the more perfect is the flower. _ In the group of selfs the conditions are the same, except that there is no margin, and con sequently the body colour, which should be uniform in tone, extends to the edge. In the alpines there should be no paste or white surrounding the eye, but this space should be either golden-yellow or creamy-yellow, which makes two subdivisions in this group ; and | the body colour is more or less distinctly shaded, the edges being j of a paler hue. There is besides a group of laced alpines, in which a distinct and regular border of colour surrounds each of the marginal j lobes. The following is a selection of good sorts now obtainable in the respective groups : Green-edged. Leigh s Col. Taylor, Booth s Freedom, Litton s Imperator, Ashton s Prince of Wales, Trail s Prince of Greens, Page s Champion. Orey-edged. Headly s George Lightbody, Lancashire s Lancashire Hero, Sykes s Complete, Kay s Alexander Meiklejohn, Walker s George Levick, Headly s C. E. Brown White-edged. Regula Selfs. Pohlmau s Garibaldi, Turner s C. J. Perry, Lightbody s Meteor Alpines. Turner s John Leech, Turner s Bessie Ray, Gorton s Diadem, Turner s A. F. Barron, Turner s Jessie, Turner s Susie Matthams. Jarm- 43. The Carnation (Dianthus Caryopliyllus), a native, as some ion. suppose, of Italy, but occasionally found in an apparently wild state in England, has long been held in high estimation as a garden flower, not only for the beauty but for the delightful fragrance of its blossoms. The varieties are numerous, and are ranged under three groups, called bizarres, flakes, and picotees. The last, from their distinctness of character, are now generally looked upon as if they were a different plant, whereas they are, in truth, but a seminal development from the carnation itself, their number and variety being entirely owing to the assiduous endeavours of the modern florist to vary and to improve them. The true carnations, as distinguished from picotees, are those which have the colours arranged in longitudinal stripes or bars of variable width on each petal, the ground colour being white. The bizarres are those in which stripes of two distinct colours occur on the white ground, and it is on the purity of the white ground and the clearness and evenness of the striping that the technical merit of each variety rests. There are scarlet bizarres marked with scarlet and maroon, crimson bizarres marked with crimson and purple, j and pink and purple bizarres marked with those two colours. The flakes are those which have stripes of only one colour on the white ground, and here we have purple flakes striped with purple, scarlet flakes striped with scarlet, and rose flakes striped with rose colour. There are still the sclfs, or those showing one colour only, as white, yellow, crimson, purple, &c., and these are commonly called cloves. The picotea differs from the carnation in having the petals laced instead of striped with a distinct colour ; the subgroups bear the designations red-edged, purple-edged, rose-edged, and scarlet-edged, all having white grounds ; each group divides into two sections, the heavy-edged and the light-edged respectively. In the heavy- edged sorts the colour appears to be laid on in little touches, passing from the edge inwards, but so closely that they coalesce into one line of colour from T 5 to T V of an inch broad, and more or less feathered on the inner edge, the less feathered the better ; while the light- edged sorts display only a fine edge, commonly called a wire edge, of colour on the white ground. To these have to be added yellow picotees, a group of great beauty, but deficient in correctness of marking. Even the choice varieties of the carnation or picotee may be very successfully grown in most unfavourable localities ; but the com moner sorts, such as may be raised freely from seed, on account of their robust constitution, are perhaps to be preferred for the ordinary flower garden ; while the single -flowered sorts are by no means to be despised, especially those having decided colours. It is by selecting the best seedlings that new varieties of merit are produced. The established varieties are propagated by layers or by pipings, the formerplan being adopted with strong healthy plants in an ordinarily congenial season. The latter is sometimes had recourse to when the plants do not produce young shoots of sufficient length to admit of their being layered ; and the cuttings, planted under close glasses in a bed where there is a very slight bottom heat, will generally root. Layering is, however, a more expeditious mode. It is performed at the time the plants are in flower, or as soon after as possible. The rooted layers may be removed and potted or planted out towards the end of September, or early in October, the choice sorts being potted in rather small pots and kept in a cold frame during winter, at which season the great enemy to be guarded against is damp. The soil for carnations and picotees should be a good turfy loam, free from wireworm, and as fibiy as it can be obtained ; to four parts of this add one part of rotten manure and one of leaf-mould, with sufficent sharp sand to keep it loose. A moderate addition of old lime rubbish, if attainable, will also be an advantage. This should be laid up in a dry place, and frequently turned over with the fork or spade, so as to be in a free friable condition for use towards the end of February or early in March. As to the size of the blooming pots, Mr Douglas observes : &quot;I. do not care to use them larger than 10 inches in diameter, inside measure, and three plants may be put into a pot that size ; a 9-inch pot may be used for a pair of a strong-growing sort, while weaker growers may lie potted two in an 8-iuch or even a 7-inch pot. If it is intended to propagate all the layers produced, that must be taken into account, as the plants will not have so good a chance in a small as in a large pot. After potting they should be kept in a well-ventilated frame until established, and set in the open air in an open sunny spot when the weather becomes genial, the flowering stems being tied up carefully as they grow up. At the flowering season they should be put in a thoroughly ventilated glass house, where they can be shaded from bright sunshine, or under the protection of a canvas screen to keep off rain and sun. Where there is any tendency in the flowers to burst the calyx on one side, the other divisions should be slit down a little, and the calyx should have a ligature, not too tight, of thread or matting ; tlfls, if done early, will prevent the petals falling aside arid destroying the symmetry of the flower.&quot; The groups are so numerous that to name a selection of the Lest sorts would occupy too much space. Ample information on this head may be obtained from Mr Douglas s book already referred to (Hardy Florists Flowers) ; and critically descriptive lists of all the varieties then grown, by the highest authority, Mr E. S. Dodwell, will be found in the volumes of the Florist and Pomologist for 1876 and 1877. 49. The Chrysanthemum (Chrysanthemum sineusc) is one of the Chrysai most popular of autumn flowers. It is a native of China, whence themun it has long been introduced. The small-flowered pompons, and the grotesque-flowered Japanese sorts are of more recent date, the former having originated from the Chusan daisy, a variety introduced by Mr Fortune in 1846, and the latter having also been intro duced by the same traveller about 1862. The plants may be in creased by division, in March or April, the divided portions being planted in beds of rich soil, under the shelter of a wall or fence, as a safeguard against cold and stormy weather. The shoots should be thinned out to about four or six from each root, and these should be staked as they grow up. They look extremely well in such a border, if arranged in two or three rows according to their heights, and with a judicious intermixture of colours, the advantage of growing them in this way being that a canvas screen can be put over them, by which means they not only flower in greater perfection, but last for a longer period. They are of the easiest culture, and may be grown readily enough even in town gardens. The chrysanthemum is, however, of very great importance as a greenhouse plant for autumn and winter flowering, and for this pur pose, as well as for exhibition culture, it is generally raised from cuttings, or suckers, which are taken off by some growers about October, and planted singly in 3-inch pots, the plants being wintered in cold frames, and shifted into larger-sized pots about March ; they are topped when about 6 inches high, and the young shoots thus induced are again topped when 3 or 4 inches long. Others take short cuttings in March, and strike them quickly in a mild hotbed, airing freely as soon as rooted, and shifting and stop ping as in the other case. As soon as fine weather sets in in June, the plants, having received one or two previous shifts according to the size which they are required to reach, should be plunged outdoors in a tolerably open spot, and there carefully watered and syringed. About the middle of July they should be shifted into their blooming pots, the pompons requiring less room than the large-flowered and Japanese sorts, and after the end of July it is not advisable to con tinue the topping technically &quot;stopping&quot; of the young shoots, as it may interfere with the blooming. As soon as the flower-buds become visible, the plants are benefited by a watering of weak liquid manure two or three times a week. The pots should still bo plunged in a bed of coal ashes or cocoa-nut refuse, till about the end of September, when they should be put under glass as a precaution against injury from autumn frosts, having, however, full ventilation by day. Abundant root watering is necessary until the flowers are developed, when the supply may be slightly diminished, and the atmosphere should be kept dryish by abundant ventilation. The compost used for potting in all the stages afterthe cuttings, for which any light earth will suffice, should consist of four parts loam to one of rotten dung and one of leaf-mould, giving rather more leaf-mould and less manure for the first potting, and rather more manure for the last ; a little coarsely-pounded gritty matter may be added advantageously. For the large-flowered sorts 11 -inch pots are large enough to produce very handsome specimens, and 8-inch pots suffice for the pompons, but very useful plants may be had in smaller pots than these. For fine specimen flowers only a single shoot is allowed to grow up, and this goes on unstopped, and finally develops two or three very large flowers ; these latter require disbudding, as some sorts give the best flowers from the terminal buds, others from the side buds. The aphis or green fly is a great enemy to the plants, and must be kept under ; dusting the hearts of the shoots with tobacco powder is a safe and efficient remedy ; but, whatever be the method employed, it should be applied before the blossoms open. The following are a few of the best varieties in each section : Large-flowered. Abbe&quot; Passaglia, Alfred Salter, Beethoven, Beverley, Br Brock, Emily Dale, Empress of India, George Glenny, Golden Beverley,