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A 
 
 TREATISE 
 
 ON THE 
 
 CARNATION, 
 
 AND 
 
 OTHER FLOWERS. 
 
A 
 
 PRACTICAL TREATISE ON THE CULTURE 
 
 OF THE 
 
 CARNATION, 
 
 PINK, AURICULA, POLYANTHUS, RANUNCULUS, 
 
 TULIP, HYACINTH, ROSE, AND 
 
 OTHER FLOWERS: 
 
 DISSERTATION ON SOILS AND MANURES, AND CATALOGUES 
 OF THE MOST ESTEEMED VARIETIES OF EACH FLOWER. 
 
 BY THOMAS HOGG, FLORIST, 
 
 PADDINGTON GREEN, MIDDLESEX. 
 
 The Flower Garden is an endless Source of Pleasure. 
 
 ' Si quid novisti rectius i^n,, 
 Candidas imperti, si non, bis atere inecam.' 
 
 (Coition. 
 
 WITH COLOURED ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 LONDON : 
 
 WHITTAKER & CO., AVE-MARIA-LANE. 
 1839. 
 
LONDON: 
 Printed by WILLIAM CLOWES, Stamford Street. 
 
Dedication to the First Edition. 
 
 TO THE 
 RIGHT HONOURABLE 
 
 DOWAGER LADY DE CLIFFORD. 
 
 MAY IT PLEASE YOUR LADYSHIP, 
 
 It is with no small degree of satisfaction that I 
 here record your Ladyship's permission to introduce this 
 small and humble work to public notice, under the sanc- 
 tion of your Ladyship's distinguished name ; believe 
 me, I am duly sensible of the honour conferred, as well 
 as of the powerful recommendation which it thereby 
 receives. 
 
 Your Ladyship's name, I may fairly say, is in a man- 
 ner identified with the science of botany itself; for you 
 have been its liberal and munificent patroness for years, 
 and have long pursued it, as a study at once innocent, 
 
 248127 
 
VI DEDICATION. 
 
 rational, and amusing, with unwearied ardour and suc- 
 cess. 
 
 The various productions of Nature which you have 
 collected from all parts and all climates of the world, 
 some requiring the fostering warmth of the stove, others 
 the more temperate atmosphere of the green-house, to 
 say nothing of those that adorn the open garden, each 
 distinguished for some striking and peculiar property, 
 either of elegant and stately growth, curious and remark- 
 able foliage, or beautiful and odoriferous blossom, 
 whether tree, shrub, or herb, bespeak alike your Lady- 
 ship's refined taste and judicious selection. 
 
 I am, 
 With sentiments of profound respect, 
 
 Your Ladyship's most obliged, 
 
 And most grateful servant, 
 
 THOMAS HOGG. 
 
 Paddington Green. 
 
PRE FACE 
 
 TO THE SECOND EDITION. 
 
 THE liberal encouragement which the former Edition 
 of this little Work has met with from the admirers of 
 the Flower-garden in general, as well as from the 
 skilful and experienced Florist, has enabled the Au- 
 thor to put forth a Second Edition, in which he has 
 made very considerable additions, and introduced a 
 variety of new matter connected with the subject, 
 being the result of two years' additional experience 
 and information. He has added, under their re- 
 spective heads, full, yet concise and amended, cata- 
 logues of each Flower treated of. Those of the 
 Rose, of the Hyacinth, of Geraniums, of Herba- 
 ceous Plants, of annual Flowers, are new, and he 
 hopes will prove acceptable ; all which he has en- 
 deavoured to compress into as small a compass as 
 possible, having inserted only what appeared both 
 essential and needful. Five new Plates have been, 
 added, to illustrate the properties of a good flower; 
 
Vlll PREFACE. 
 
 the expense of which, and the superior manner in 
 which this Edition has been got up, will, he hopes, 
 justify the additional charge put upon the book. 
 
 He cannot let pass this opportunity of returning 
 his most grateful thanks to those Ladies and Gentle- 
 men, who have not only recommended and patro- 
 nized his small Treatise, but who have still more 
 essentially served him by the purchase of his flowers; 
 his Collection of which, he begs to assure them, as long 
 as his health or circumstances will admit, will always 
 be found to be choice, curious, and extensive, and 
 the charge also will be as moderate as that of any 
 other Florist. 
 
 Paddington. 
 
NOTE BY THE PUBLISHERS. 
 
 THE Publishers of this Edition of Hogg's Treatise 
 on Flowers, which has so closely followed the pre- 
 ceding, beg leave to state that all the additions, cor- 
 rections, and improvements made by the Author 
 himself in the last, are carefully retained in this ; so 
 that they now present it to the Public as complete 
 in every respect, and worthy of the very liberal 
 patronage it has already received. 
 
 Ave-Maria Lane, 
 Aug. 1832. 
 
 a 5 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 As the hand of an all-beneficent Creator 
 has been graciously pleased to strew and de- 
 corate the earth with flowers, to gratify the 
 sight by their beauty, and to refresh the sense 
 of smelling by their fragrance, as we proceed 
 from stage to stage along the rugged road of 
 life ; and as nothing which he has formed for 
 the benefit of man was ever designed by him 
 to perish or exist in vain, it is our duty to 
 receive these pleasing productions of his, 
 among others, with all thankfulness, and to 
 render them subservient to the purposes of 
 health, pleasure, and amusement ; for such 
 no doubt he first bestowed them. In fact, the 
 cultivation of flowers has in all parts, as well 
 
Xll INTRODUCTION. 
 
 as in all ages of the world, engaged more or 
 less the care and attention of a great part of 
 mankind; for the same Being that created 
 them, created in man also a wish and an 
 inclination to cultivate and take charge of 
 them. To spend too much of our time upon 
 them may be justly deemed folly; yet not to 
 notice them at all shows a corrupted taste, 
 and a total want of grateful sensibility. 
 
 While they contribute to charm the eye by 
 their gay external appearance, they furnish at 
 the same time, to the intelligent mind of man, 
 matter for study and reflection. The opera- 
 tions of nature in the vegetable world are 
 most wonderful, both in the production and 
 preservation of her numerous progeny, whe- 
 ther we contemplate their endless diversity, 
 their curious construction, their varied fo- 
 liage, their beautiful blossoms, their fra- 
 grance, their different stages of existence, and 
 
INTRODUCTION. X11I 
 
 terms of duration, perennial, biennial, annual. 
 
 These, and a hundred other remarkable pro- 
 
 tf 
 perties, cannot fail to engage our study and 
 
 excite our curiosity : whether we direct our 
 attention to the humble Lily of the Valley, 
 or to the more magnificent blossom of the 
 Magnolia, still we find something to admire, 
 something to astonish and delight us. 
 
 1 Go mark the workings of the power 
 That shuts within the seed the future Flower ; 
 Bids these iu elegance of form excel, 
 In colour these, and those delight the smell ; 
 Sends Nature forth, the daughter of the skies, 
 To dwell on earth, and charm all human eyes.' 
 
 CoVvTER. 
 
 To take a view for a moment of the larger 
 productions of nature and though the fre- 
 quency of beholding those objects, however 
 wonderful, never fails to lessen the interest 
 which we should otherwise feel, if the sight 
 of them were not so familiar yet who can 
 
XIV INTRODUCTION. 
 
 pass by the stately Elm, the towering Beech, 
 the lofty Fir, or the sturdy outstretched 
 branches of the majestic Oak, without having 
 his astonishment and admiration excited ? 
 But how would that wonder and astonish- 
 ment increase, if he had an opportunity of 
 beholding the immense Cedars growing on 
 their native mountains of Libanus, the stu- 
 pendous Icaria on the sides and summits of 
 the Andes, and the stately Palms of India, to 
 say nothing of the Norwegian Pines, or the 
 lofty Poplars that grow along the banks of 
 the Po in Lombardy ! 
 
 To enter upon the description here, or to 
 enumerate the various uses and properties of 
 those gigantic productions of Nature, those 
 prodigies of vegetable life, which constitute 
 the pride and ornament of the forest, would 
 carry me too far from my subject ; I will 
 therefore proceed to take a cursory view of 
 
INTRODUCTION. XV 
 
 the less noble and majestic, but more beauti- 
 ful and attractive inhabitants of the Flower 
 Garden- enter but which, the restless and 
 turbulent passions which disturb and agitate 
 the breasts of men, amidst the busy and active 
 pursuits of life, subside into a calm, and give 
 place to the milder and softer emotions of the 
 soul : everything here is calculated to inspire 
 serenity and delight ; Nature here offers an 
 inexhaustible fund of amusement, not con- 
 fining it to one single day, or week, or month, 
 but to almost every day, week, and month in 
 the year, still increasing, varying, and mul- 
 tiplying her productions beyond all power of 
 thought. 
 
 But here Art, the handmaid of Nature, 
 must be called in to her assistance ; and care, 
 and skill, and study are required to preserve, 
 cultivate, and display those gifts to advantage, 
 without which they are liable to perish, and 
 
XVI INTRODUCTION. 
 
 without which half their beauty and excel- 
 lence are lost or unseen. 
 
 To the man of leisure and retirement, 
 horticulture is a pursuit at once rational and 
 atnusing ; it unites the ' utile dulci, ' and 
 gives health and recreation alike to the body 
 and the mind; the spade, the hoe, and the 
 rake, even in the hands of a gentleman, 
 degrade not, when used for such beneficial 
 ends. 
 
 To the invalid and valetudinarian, as well 
 as to the sufferer from mental distress and 
 agony, it presents a solace and a balm that at 
 times seem to abate pain, and give to distress 
 the languid smile of pleasure. Females, both 
 young and old, derive the highest gratification 
 from the flower-garden in particular ; and the 
 more refined the taste, the more exquisite the 
 gratification. The vernal sun, in the morn- 
 ings of April and May, emits rays which 
 
INTRODUCTION. XVll" 
 
 kindle pleasure in the breast of the youthful 
 maiden, who rises early, perambulates the 
 garden, and feasts the eye and sense upon 
 the varied beauty and refreshing fragrance of 
 flowers, so enchantingly displayed in the gay 
 parterre of art and nature. This early exer- 
 cise paints the rose of health upon her cheek, 
 and the innocency of the recreation imparts 
 the odour and the purity of the lily to her 
 mind : this is a pleasure unknown to those 
 who live in crowded cities, and listless lie in 
 bed till noon. 
 
 ' Sweet is the breath of Morn, her rising sweet, 
 With charm of earliest birds ; pleasant the Sun, 
 When first on this delightful land he spreads 
 His orient beams, on herb, tree, fruit, and flower, 
 Glitt'ring with dew.' MILTON. 
 
 The garden is likewise the private sanctuary 
 of the pious man's devotions, and the scene 
 of his meditations : the flower is to him at 
 once a text and a sermon, which in the morn- 
 
XV111 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 ing may be considered the emblem of youth 
 and beauty, and at night either the drooping 
 picture of decline, or the withered, lifeless 
 victim of dissolution. The poet and the 
 painter are both indebted to the flower-gar- 
 den. What simple, yet what elegant and 
 striking metaphors, similes, and apostrophes, 
 has not the poet drawn from the Rose, the 
 Tulip, and the Lily ! From these, too, the 
 painter first learns his expression of nature, 
 and studies the art of colouring, with which 
 he afterwards gives seeming life and anima- 
 tion to the more sublime subjects of his pencil. 
 
 ' I have neither the Scholar's melancholy, which is emulation; 
 nor the Musician's, which is fantastical; nor the Courtier's, which 
 is proud ; nor the Soldier's, which is ambition ; nor the Lawyer's, 
 which is politic ; nor the Lady's, which is nice ; nor the Lover's, 
 which is all these.' SHAKSPEARE. 
 
 It is true that the fancies and tastes of men 
 are various and singular. Natural history, in 
 its several divisions and parts, engages the 
 
INTRODUCTION. XUC 
 
 study and attention of many. One is fond of 
 plants ; another of shells and minerals ; an- 
 other of birds and beasts ; another of insects. 
 The arts also furnish objects of pursuit and 
 amusement. One is a collector of old paint- 
 ings ; another of old coins and medals ; an- 
 other of ancient arms and armour; another 
 of vases and old china ; another of rare and 
 curious books and manuscripts ; another of 
 old fiddles and other musical instruments : 
 some covet jewels and precious stones ; but 
 all, with very rare exceptions, seem to fix 
 their fancy upon the precious metals gold 
 and silver ; and the reason is, e omne auro 
 venale,' the alchymist's search after the phi- 
 losopher's stone having been long given up 
 as altogether hopeless. 
 
 ' When gold becomes their object, 
 Men will break their sleep with thought, their brains 
 With care, their bones with industry. What 
 Can it not do, and undo ? ' SHAKSPEARE. 
 
XX INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Antiquated maids and childless matrons not 
 Unfrequently bestow their affections upon 
 dogs, cats, and birds. Bantams, pigeons, and 
 canary-birds have their particular fanciers ; 
 and many are the strange fancies besides. 
 Professors of many of the above-recited pur- 
 suits are styled Antiquaries, Virtuosi, Con- 
 noisseurs, Amateurs, Dilettanti, Fanciers, 
 &c. &c. ; and the epithets, sometimes not 
 inaptly applied to them, are learned, curious, 
 f skilful, clever crack-brained, foolish, mad, 
 &c. &c. ; and many men are such eccentrics 
 and latitudinists, that, in the course of their 
 lives, they will embrace the whole circle of 
 fancies, and frequently become the dupes tea 
 times over of the knaves, quacks, and varlets 
 of pretended science in each pursuit. Every 
 age, it is true, has its hobby or ruling passion 
 of some sort or other, which varies with our 
 years, as we pass from childhood to youth, 
 
INTRODUCTION. XXI 
 
 from youth to manhood, and from manhood to 
 old age; and those hobbies or recreations, 
 call them which you will, are the pleasantest 
 and best which leave no painful recollections 
 behind them. Yet some aged and self-disap- 
 pointed philosopher, or peevish moralist, to 
 whom such pursuits no longer present either 
 novelty or gratification, will tell you that the 
 sum of them all is folly, the substance a time- 
 amusing shadow, and the end disappointment 
 and s vexation of spirit ; ' but w r e find that few 
 or none are willing to listen to him, however 
 famed for his wisdom and experience, whose 
 present preaching and past practice have 
 been at variance with each other. 
 
 The nature of man still remains the same, 
 though his mind be ever so much improved 
 by education, or enlightened by the collective 
 wisdom and experience of ages ; he is subject 
 to the same appetites and passions, influenced 
 by the same tastes and distates, fond of novelty, 
 
XX11 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 the slave of custom and fashion; pleased with 
 a plaything one moment, and tired of it the 
 next : his objects of pursuit are often, too, as 
 fleeting and transitory as the vain wish which 
 first gave birth to it; mere phantoms of the 
 imagination, bubbles of air, which very often 
 vanish in the pursuit, or perish in the attain- 
 ment : hence it follows that the same career 
 is run, and the same beaten track trodden as 
 before. 
 
 To particularize any two or three flowers 
 in this place might appear invidious, yet I 
 trust I shall incur no displeasure from my 
 readers, while I just place before their eyes 
 the names of a few well-known favourites, 
 which want not my aid either to extol their 
 beauty or to speak their praise. 
 
 ' Now, my fairest friend, 
 
 I would I had some flowers o' the spring ; Daffodils, 
 That come before the swallow dares, and take 
 The winds of March with beauty ; Violets dim, 
 But sweeter than the lids of Juno's eyes, 
 
INTRODUCTION. XXU1 
 
 Or Cytherea's breath ; pale Primroses, 
 That die unmarried, ere they can behold 
 Bright Phoebus in his strength, a malady 
 Most incident to maids ; bold Oxlips, and 
 The Crown imperial ; Lilies of all kinds, 
 The flower-de-lis being one ! O these I lack 
 To make you garlands of! ' 
 
 SHAKSPEARE. 
 
 Who, that has a garden and a taste for 
 flowers, would be without the Crocus, the 
 Snowdrop, the Primrose, the Violet, the 
 Cyclamen, Hepatica, Hyacinth, Narcissus, 
 Auricula, Ranunculus, Anemone, Wallflower, 
 Stock, Pink, Tulip, Carnation, Rose, Iris, 
 Lily, Lychnis, Lobelia, Delphinium, Verbas- 
 cum, Rudbeckia, Anthericum, Aconitum, Mo- 
 narda, Ferraria, Gentiana, ^Enothera, Scilla 
 peruviana, Pseony, Phlox, Hemerocallis, Co- 
 reopsis, Campanula, China Aster, Hollyhock, 
 and a multitude of others, each species con- 
 sisting of many beautiful varieties, both single 
 and double not to enumerate any of the fine 
 flowering shrubs of almost every description? 
 
XXIV INTRODUCTION. 
 
 To proceed to the subject immediately be- 
 fore me, which, in fact, is nothing more 
 than the attempt to describe the mode of 
 treatment necessary to be pursued in the cul- 
 tivation of a very small part of the flowers 
 just named. 
 
 Before I enter upon it, it may perhaps be 
 expected that I should first state some reason 
 or other why I have been induced to publish 
 the following concise and practical treatise on 
 the culture of these flowers (so I have thought 
 fit to style it), since these flowers and their 
 mode of treatment are described more or less 
 in almost every book on gardening. If I 
 should attempt to give any such reason, most 
 likely it would appear to many neither suffi- 
 ciently weighty nor satisfactory, inasmuch as 
 it would neither prove the necessity of any 
 such publication, nor show that I, from my 
 habits of life, not being professionally a gar- 
 
INTRODUCTION. XXV 
 
 dener, am competent to the task which I have 
 professed to undertake : however, with all 
 due deference, I beg to state, that I have no 
 where been able to meet with that account of 
 those flowers, and their management, which 
 I from my own knowledge and experience 
 would be induced to adopt and follow, as a 
 manual or directory because the directions 
 given are too vague, general, and defective, 
 to be reduced to practice ; in many cases, also, 
 I have found them quite contrary to the nature 
 and habits of the plants they profess to treat of. 
 Besides, the work of any writer on the flower- 
 garden, whose inmates are now almost with- 
 out number, however skilful and experienced 
 he might be, if he were to attempt to give 
 plain, clear, and practical directions for the 
 culture of each flower separately, that is 
 worthy of his notice, would be both too ex- 
 pensive to be obtained generally, as well as 
 
 b 
 
XXVI INTRODUCTION. 
 
 too voluminous and unwieldy for general or 
 e very-day use ; and in truth, this objection 
 applies to most of the books already published 
 on the subject. 
 
 Whatever inclination I might have felt to 
 communicate at all times the result of my 
 experience to others, I have been greatly 
 encouraged in the present instance by the 
 repeated solicitations of several admirers as 
 well as growers of flowers, to wiiom I had 
 already presented in writing, with no small 
 trouble and inconvenience, the substance of 
 the remarks contained herein, to print and 
 publish some short treatise or other on the 
 Carnation in particular, accompanied with a 
 catalogue of those flowers which I was in the 
 habit of growing. 
 
 What gave rise in the first instance to 
 these solicitations was no doubt the fine, 
 healthy appearance of the plants in my col- 
 
INTRODUCTION. XXV11 
 
 lection, and the uncommonly rich and beau- 
 tiful blossoms which they have produced the 
 last two or three years ; which circumstance 
 also served to convince me that the compost 
 which I had made use of was good, and the 
 treatment they had received was proper ; and 
 that in publishing the said Treatise and Cata- 
 logue, I might render an acceptable service 
 to the cultivators of flowers in general; the 
 latter, to direct the young and inexperienced 
 florist in his choice of good flowers ; and the 
 former, to assist him in the proper cultivation 
 of them. 
 
 With what clearness and precision I have 
 executed the same, within the narrow com- 
 pass prescribed, I leave to the candid and 
 impartial reader to judge, whose approbation 
 and patronage I am anxious to obtain. 
 
 To say that the design was at last hastily 
 formed, and as hastily executed, without the 
 
XXV111 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 aid of books on the subject to refer to, the 
 whole having been written, printed, and ^pub- 
 lished in the course of a few weeks, under 
 many disadvantages, allowing neither much 
 time for revision nor correction, will perhaps 
 afford but a poor apology for any defects that 
 may appear. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Preface . . . . . vii 
 
 Introduction ... x j 
 
 Horticulture and its Admirers . . x iii 
 
 Enumeration of Fancies, &c. . . xviii 
 
 Carnation ; Name, and Distinctions . . 1 
 
 Kit Nunn, and dressing of Flowers . 8 
 
 Primitive Soils . jy 
 
 Characteristics of good and bad Florists 25 
 
 Green Fly, Ear- wig, Wire- worm . . 29 
 
 Manure for the Garden . . 35 
 
 Leaf Mould . 43 
 
 Podding, Carding, Wiring, &c. . 47 
 
 Yellow Picotee . . . .58 
 
 Of Piping .... 64 
 
 Of Laying 68 
 
XXX CONTENTS. 
 
 Page 
 
 On Seed and Seedlings . 74 
 
 A Stage of Carnations . , .83 
 
 Dutch mode of Gardening . . 85 
 
 Catalogue of Carnations . . 91 
 
 of Picotees . . 105 
 
 Of the Pink . . . .108 
 
 Catalogue . . . . 116 
 
 Of the Auricula . . . - . .120 
 
 Matthew Kenny and his Treatment of it 124 
 
 ompost . . . .130 
 
 Lancashire System . . . 131 
 Treatment in November, December, and January 132 
 
 in April . . . 134 
 
 On Potting . . . .140 
 
 On Seed .... 145 
 
 Catalogue . . . .156 
 
 Of the Primrose and Polyanthus . . 159 
 
 Of the Ranunculus . . .163 
 
 Of the Tulip .... 173 
 
 Van Oosten . . , . .180 
 
 Of the Hyacinth . . .. 188 
 
 Catalogue , . . 206 
 
CONTENTS. XXXI 
 
 Page 
 
 Of the Rose . . . . 212 
 
 Catalogue . . . .219 
 
 Of Geraniums .... 222 
 Of the Georgina .... 223 
 
 Of the Russian and Danish Stocks . 225 
 
 Herbaceous Plants, &c. . , 229 
 
 Of Ornamental Trees and Flowering Shrubs 232 
 
 The Bower . . . . .238 
 
 A Flower Christening . . , 240 
 
 Rules of a Florists' Society . . .251 
 
 Prizes for Auriculas, Pinks, and Carnations . 258 
 
 Prize Gooseberries . . . 261 
 
 Notice Extraordinary . , . 274 
 
TREATISE 
 
 ON THE 
 
 GROWTH AND MANAGEMENT 
 
 CARNATION. 
 
 ITS NAME AND DISTINCTIONS. 
 
 OF all the flowers that adorn the garden, whether 
 they charm the eye by their beauty, or regale the 
 sense of smelling by their fragrance, the Carnation 
 may be justly said to hold the first rank. 
 
 PERDITA. The fairest flowers o* the season 
 Are our Carnations, and streaked Gillyflowers, 
 Which some call Nature's bastards : of that kind 
 Our rustic garden 's barren j and I care not 
 ^ To get slips of them. 
 
 POLIXINES. Wherefore, gentle maiden, 
 
 Do you neglect them ? 
 
 Shakspeare's Winter's Tale, Act IF. 
 
 The stateliness of its growth, the brilliancy and 
 
 diversity of its colours, and the sweetness of its per- 
 
 B 
 
2 THE CARNATION. 
 
 fume, never fail to attract our regard and admira- 
 tion. The Tulip, though styled the Queen of the 
 Garden, cannot boast of more admirers : they may 
 with propriety be considered the two master-pieces of 
 nature ; and, though rival beauties, may be said to 
 share the sovereignty of the garden equally between 
 them. Yet it must be admitted that the Carnation, 
 independent of its fragrance, has this advantage over 
 its rival, that it continues longer in bloom ; and 
 that when planted in pots, it, can be removed to 
 decorate the greenhouse, the conservatory, or the 
 drawing-room. 
 
 The Carnation as well as the Pink are said to 
 have been introduced first into England from Italy, 
 and have derived their names in the English language 
 from their colour Pink, Carnation, or flesh-colour. 
 The Carnation was also, as well as the Clove, styled 
 by the old English florists, Clove-Gilliflower, from 
 its blooming in July. They both belong to the 
 same class and genus, and are known to the ancient 
 botanists under the name of Caryophyllum, or Wal- 
 nut Leaf, Folium Nucis; but why, is uncertain. 
 
THE CARNATION. 3 
 
 The Carnation is also called Coronarium, from its 
 having been used in chaplets and garlands for the 
 head : Linnaeus has now given it the more appro- 
 priate appellation of Dianthus, Flos nobilis, fine or 
 superior flower; and Dianthus Caryophyllus, in 
 the modern acceptation of the word, denotes the Clove 
 only. The Carnation is usually divided into three 
 classes, namely, Flake, Bizarre, and Picotee. 
 
 Flake is a term too well known and understood to 
 require any explanation or definition here ; Bizarre, 
 the second, is an epithet or adjective borrowed from 
 the French, implying whimsical or fantastical; 
 hence Bizarre, applied to a Carnation, means that it 
 contains a whimsical or fantastical mixture of colours 
 of not less than three distinct shades: Picotde is 
 likewise a French word, an adjective feminine, and 
 signifies pricked or spotted ; hence ' la Carnation 
 picotee/ means the spotted Carnation. 
 
 The English florist is almost inclined to treat the 
 Picotee as a distinct species like the Pink, and 
 though he has preserved the right mode of spelling 
 the word, he gives it an English pronunciation. To 
 
 B 2 
 
4 THE CARNATION. 
 
 take up the time of the reader in giving a minute 
 description of all the parts of this flower in the tech- 
 nical language of a botanist, is neither necessary nor 
 required here : I will therefore simply describe what 
 are considered the properties of a good flower among 
 florists. 
 
 The two first classes are further distinguished by 
 their various colours ; as scarlet flake, pink flake, 
 purple flake, scarlet bizarre, crimson bizarre, purple 
 bizarre ; the Picotee is distinguished by the colour 
 of its spots. 
 
 THE DESCRIPTION OF A FINE CARNATION. 
 
 THE excellency of a Carnation is judged and esti- 
 mated by the brightness and distinctness of its va- 
 rious tints and hues, and by the formation or con- 
 struction of the flower-leaves or petals : the ground 
 colour should be of a clear white, as in Walker's 
 British Beauty and Sharpe's Defiance, and the 
 flakes or stripes must run longitudinally through the 
 leaves, as in Fletcher's Duchess of Devonshire and 
 
THE CARNATION. 5 
 
 Harley's Enchanter, not breaking off abruptly, as 
 in Belcher's Lady Spenser. In a perfect flower, or 
 one that approaches nearest to perfection, every leaf 
 should be striped according to its class, whether flake 
 or bizarre : plain or self-coloured leaves are accounted 
 a great defect. The calix or cup, after the petals 
 are unfolded, must remain entire and unburst, and 
 the large external petals or guard leaves must be 
 without crack or blemish ; and the diameter of a 
 show-flower should never be less than three inches. 
 It is also considered a great defect when the corolla 
 is overcharged with petals, as in Reynolds 's King 
 and Young's Mount ^Etna, for the blossom in ex- 
 panding generally bursts the cup ; and it is no less 
 so when it contains too few, as is the case with 
 Crump's Rodney, Wood's Comet, and Anne's Prince 
 of Wales, though possessing the most brilliant and 
 distinct colours. It is unnecessary, perhaps, to state 
 here that those flowers which are thin of leaves 
 produce the most seed, on which account they are 
 valuable. 
 
 The flower must be sufficiently double to form a 
 
O THE CARNATION. 
 
 kind of crown in the centre, as in Davey's Tower of 
 Babel and James's Lord Craven, the petals rising 
 one above another in regular order ; the guard leaves 
 in particular should be broad and long, and of a 
 stout texture, to support the rest, like those of Hum- 
 phrey's Duke of Clarence, the edges of which must 
 not be indented or fringed, as unluckily is the case 
 with Honey's Princess Charlotte, but plain and cir- 
 cular, like the leaves of a Provins Rose. A flower, 
 whose corolla or pod is long, generally shoots forth 
 the finest flower, and occasions the least trouble 
 in attending it. The flower or foot stalk must be 
 strong, straight, and elastic, to support the blossoms 
 firmly and gracefully, notwithstanding the stick 
 which is applied to sustain it; the height of the 
 stalk varies from 2 ft. 6 in. to 4 ft. 6 in. according to 
 the habit of their growth. 
 
 o 
 
 The value of a flower is also greatly enhanced, 
 when it exhales a sweet and fragrant perfume, as is 
 the case with Robinson's Britannia, Weltje's Sir 
 Edward Pellew, Broadbent's Victorious, Bates's 
 Wellington, &c. All Carnations possess this qua- 
 
THE CARNATION. 7 
 
 lity, but in very different degrees; in some it is 
 scarcely perceptible, while in others it is strikingly 
 powerful. Odour seems to prevail most in strongly 
 bizarred scarlets, where there is a frequent recur- 
 rence of the clove stripe in the petals. The prefer- 
 ence which one class of flowers, at times, is said to 
 obtain over another, depends entirely on the taste and 
 fancy of the person who gives that preference. The 
 scarlet bizarre is a favourite with one, the crimson 
 with another, the purple flake with another, and so 
 on in like manner with the rest. There can be no 
 certain or fixed rule why one is to be adjudged in this 
 respect superior to another, where taste is the only 
 criterion to go by. A flower possessed of all the 
 properties called for by the rules and regulations 
 laid down in the Societies, where they are exhibited 
 for prizes, is seldom or never met with. Art is 
 called in to the assistance of nature, and the skilful 
 hand of the florist dexterously extracts the self- 
 coloured and defective and over-crowded leaves, and 
 sometimes even will insert others, and arranges and 
 adjusts the whole with surprising nicety. 
 
8 THE CARNATION. 
 
 One Christopher Nunn, of Enfield, Middlesex, a 
 noted florist in his day, was eminent for his skill and 
 dexterity in dressing Pinks and Carnations for prize 
 exhibitions some will even tell you, that Kit was 
 the father of the art. Upon such occasions he had 
 as many applications to dress flowers, as he had to 
 dress wigs ; for he was a barber and friseur by trade, 
 and withal a good-natured, facetious, prating bar- 
 ber, and could both shave and lay a Carnation with 
 the greatest nicety. The novices of that day, who, 
 being unacquainted with his secret art, trusted to 
 Dame Nature to open, expand, and perfect their 
 flowers, were no match for Nunez : for he began 
 where she left off, and perfected what she had left 
 imperfect. His arrangement and disposition of the 
 petals were admirable, and astonished those novices. 
 Kit's art of dressing is still an enviable art, and 
 attainable only by few. 
 
 Kit, as a florist, possessed other merit besides 
 this : he could mix and temper soils with the same 
 skill as he did his pomatum ; he was a great experi- 
 mentalist and compounder of manures; it was all 
 
THE CARNATION. U 
 
 the same to him, whether he snuffed up the odour 
 of roses, or the less inviting fragrance of animal 
 ordure; it was he that first applied sugar-bakers' 
 scum as a surface dressing to flowers, having wit- 
 nessed its surprising effect upon the land of a neigh- 
 bour of his, a sugar-refiner from Goodman's Fields ; 
 and he also had the credit of persuading and con- 
 vincing Sir Somebody Tressilian or Trevannian, a 
 Cornish Baronet, that old rags and old wigs, which 
 contained so much grease and human fat, were a 
 much warmer and richer manure for his land, than 
 the oily carcasses of his pilchards ; and it is further 
 said, that Kit, as agent or factor, in one week bought 
 up more than two thousand wigs in the neighbour- 
 hood of that celebrated mart Rosemary Lane, which 
 were sent down to try the experiment. Be not im- 
 patient, courteous reader, to get rid of poor Nunn ; 
 remember he was a brother florist, and belonged to 
 the fancy wait till you learn the result of one of 
 his own experiments, and take this moral with it, 
 though there be no fable here : ( Other men's mis- 
 haps should make us wary.' 
 
 B 5 
 
10 THE CARNATION. 
 
 Ill the early stage of his fancy, Kit, upon 
 mature reflection., once concluded, that neat and 
 genuine horse-dung, divested of all extraneous straw; 
 must be better than much straw and little dung, as 
 are usually put together. The resolution once taken, 
 he hastened to the shop of a neighbouring black- 
 Smith, and agreed for all the droppings that the 
 horses, which came to be shod, should make in a 
 twelvemonth, with all the parings of the hoof to 
 boot. He amassed above two loads of this dung, 
 and after it had become rotten, he mixed it up with 
 the mould for his flowers in every way ; he made 
 use of it for Pinks and Carnations, both in pots and 
 in beds. His expectations for a fine bloom that 
 summer were raised to the highest pitch, and yet 
 ended in disappointment : his plants, towards Mid- 
 summer, began to look yellowish and sickly, and 
 turn cankery about, the roots ; his bloom, too, was 
 very indifferent ; and what could be the cause'? 
 His loam, he was sure, was sweet and good, and his 
 dung was nothing but dung. He layered the plants : 
 the layers also turned sickly, and several of them 
 
THE CARNATION. 11 
 
 perished. Kit's lamentations about his flowers were 
 loud and incessant ; they were heard in all the vil- 
 lages around him he repeated them to his cus- 
 tomers at home and abroad and the cause he 
 could not divine the cause. 
 
 It was well for him that all this happened before 
 Mr. Pitt, prime minister of state, had laid a sump- 
 tuary tax on heads that wore hair powder; had 
 these two evils occurred at the same time,, they must 
 have broken poor Nunn's heart. But to cut the 
 tale short, in the same way that the said tax cut off 
 the pig-tails of many of his customers afterwards, 
 Kit was not aware, till he had been informed by 
 some chemist, naturalist, or botanist, that the hob- 
 nails, the filings, the flakes, and the bits of iron, that 
 had been swept up and mixed with the dung, had 
 been the cause of all the mischief, and which had 
 produced that ' salsa rubigo,' rust and canker, which, 
 liad corrupted and poisoned the juices of the plants, 
 and nearly destroyed the whole. He never after 
 could endure the sight of a rusty nail in his com- 
 post. So much for poor Christopher Nuna ! 
 
32 THE CARNATION. 
 
 MODE OF DRESSING A FLOWER. 
 
 I HARDLY dare attempt to draw an outline even of 
 this sublime art of dressing a flower, because I have 
 neither studied nor practised it myself; and there- 
 fore not being entitled to a diploma, I must neither 
 assume the title nor degree of A.M., that is, Artis 
 Magister, by which alone I might be held qualified 
 to teach it, but must be content to be considered 
 only as a pretender and quack upon this abstruse 
 point. However, let us see what sort, of a handle 
 I shall make of it. In the first place, then, provide 
 yourselves with proper instruments, namely, a pair 
 of brass or ivory etui, commonly called tweezers, 
 and a small ivory bodkin. 
 
 As soon as the guard-leaves drop, clap a card on, 
 and with your bodkin, from time to time, assist the 
 petals in falling into their places ; then fix a glass 
 cap over the blossom, to bleach the white, and to 
 enable the leaves, by the warmth, to expand freely ; 
 shade the glass, when the sun is out, with a cabbage 
 leaf or bit of canvas ; take the glass off for an 4iour 
 
THE CARNATION. 13 
 
 or two in the evening to expose the blossom to the 
 air, lest the colours become faint by too much con- 
 finement,, and lose their lustre. 
 
 Not to spin this subject out too fine, we will 
 suppose that to-morrow the grand exhibition takes 
 place,, the show-day for honour and prizes ; and 
 that you have already marched and countermarched 
 from one end of the stage or garden to the other, 
 times out of number, and that you have examined 
 and re-examined all the blooms over and over, and 
 that you have at length, towards evening, fixed upon 
 and cut the seven or twelve flowers;, as the number 
 may be, which are to grace the pan, and contend for 
 the prize. 
 
 Dissolve a little nitre or saltpetre in the water, 
 before you put your flowers in it ; this will help to 
 stiffen the leaves. After they have been in water a 
 couple of hours, take your etui, and pull the guard- 
 leaves quite round and circular; then place the 
 second, third, and fourth tier of petals in an imbri- 
 cated form, that is, like slates upon a roof, or scales 
 upon a fish, a leaf covering each division of the 
 
14 
 
 THE CARNATION. 
 
 leaves in each row or tier, till they are all arranged 
 in a convex form, like the outside of a dome or 
 cupola ; place the bizarred and finely-striped leaves 
 in full sight, pluck out all white or self-coloured, 
 all pouncy and superfluous dull leaves ; and those 
 that will not lie, whirl with your bodkin into the 
 crown of the flower ; let the blooms be set in the 
 cellar, or coolest part of the house, all night over a 
 tub of water ; mind that the clefts or fissures down 
 the sides of the pod do not reach below the bottom 
 external cup, and that the guard-leaves stand firm 
 and support themselves without the card. A prac- 
 tical lesson, after all, upon the flower is worth a 
 dozen theoretical upon paper : learn this art by 
 practice, and practise to learn. 
 
 The show-day is an anxious day with a young 
 florist : he is full of hopes and fears, and it is not 
 less so with an old one, for ' the battle is not always 
 to the strong, nor the race to the swift ; ' for there 
 are instances without number where many an old 
 experienced, good florist has been beat, and obliged 
 to return home, alas ! without either silver cup, silver 
 
THE CARNATION'. 15 
 
 spoons, punch-ladle, copper kettle, or set of china, 
 to the no small disappointment of a prize-expecting 
 * cara sposa ' at home, who not unfrequently repays 
 his ill-luck and empty-handedness.with a good sharp 
 lecture upon his neglect and want of management. 
 
 Nay, nay, blush not, you heroes of Middlesex, nor 
 you doughty yeomen of Lancashire, Yorkshire, or 
 other county ; for if a wife has no right to tell a hus- 
 band of his faults, w r ho has ? 
 
 SITUATION, SOILS, &c. 
 
 To produce blossoms in any degree answering the 
 description contained in the last chapter, it is requi- 
 site, in the first place, that the plants should be judi- 
 ciously selected, and also that they should be in good 
 health and vigour. How to effect the latter is at all 
 times the chief aim and study of the experienced 
 florist. 
 
 An open and airy situation is the most proper for 
 the Carnation, as being most congenial to its growth 
 
16 THE CARNATION. 
 
 in all its stages. The florists in the immediate vici- 
 nity of the metropolis certainly labour under great 
 disadvantages in this particular, from the atmosphere 
 being almost always charged with clouds of unwhole- 
 some smoke, ascending from such an infinity of 
 chimneys. 
 
 The Carnation is found to thrive best in a rich 
 loamy soil of rather a sandy texture and unless 
 some pains be taken to procure such a soil, the florist 
 can have no right to entertain any great hopes of 
 success in the cultivation of it; the dissertation on 
 which, with the account of the different manures 
 recommended, and which presents itself next to my 
 consideration, may perhaps appear tedious and too 
 minute to many, but certainly it is of the greatest 
 importance to every gardener as well as florist to 
 understand something of the nature and composition 
 of the soils most congenial to the plants he has to 
 cultivate : this is a point, in my opinion, which can 
 neither be too minutely explained, nor too strongly 
 inculcated. 
 
THE CARNATION. 17 
 
 PRIMITIVE SOILS. 
 
 EARTH, in regard to its different qualities, is divided 
 into four sorts of native or primitive soils, viz. argil- 
 laceous or loamy, calcareous or chalky, siliceous or 
 sandy, heathy and boggy or peaty, and these are 
 further distinguished according to their nature, whe- 
 ther stiff or light, as clayey, gravelly, marly, &c. 
 
 Maiden or vegetable mould, which is formed by 
 the decay of all vegetable and animal substances, 
 forms the superficial stratum of all soils, and is con- 
 sidered the most fertile of all. The grand art in 
 gardening is to know when there is deficiency or re- 
 dundancy of any of those primitive soils in the mould 
 you are going to make use of, and to be able to mix 
 and regulate it, so as to suit the nature and wants 
 of the tree, shrub, or plant you intend to set in it. 
 
 ' There are many people who, from want of 
 * thought or observation, foolishly imagine, that be- 
 ' cause a plant is set in mould it must thrive in it, 
 ' exposed in all weathers w r et or dry, hot or cold ; 
 
18 
 
 THE CARNATION. 
 
 * whether it be tender or hardy, indigenous or exotic ; 
 
 * whether it be a native of the mountains or an off- 
 
 * spring of the valleys ; never considering that dif- 
 ' ferent plants require different soils or earths, as well 
 e as different aspects and climates. Some require 
 
 * strong soils, others light ; some like to bask in the 
 ' sun, others thrive best in the shade ; some will stand 
 f any flood of rain, while others again require moisture 
 f only occasionally ; from which it is pretty evident 
 
 * that one general system of culture for every plant 
 ' can be neither right nor proper. To mix, temper, 
 { and harmonize different soils, so as to form one 
 ' suitable to each plant, to know its peculiar situation 
 ' and proper treatment, its best mode of propagation, 
 f &c., is what shows and distinguishes the skilful 
 'and experienced gardener.' Emmerton on the 
 Auricula. 
 
 DIRECTIONS IN THE CHOICE OF YOUR LOAM. 
 
 J HERE recommend to all who have the means or 
 opportunity of doing it, to lay up a sufficient stock 
 
THE CARNATION. 19 
 
 of rich loam or maiden earth to serve them two or 
 three years, which, by being turned occasionally, will 
 become pulverised and fit for use at all times and for 
 all purposes. What you obtain from any waste or 
 common,, should consist, in the language of a labour- 
 ing man, of the top spit and crumbs only, to be piled 
 up with the turf downwards. The common test 
 whereby to judge of a rich soil is, that when fresh 
 dug up it shall emit a pleasant smell, and not stick 
 to the fingers in handling, but when compressed and 
 rubbed between the thumb and fingers, will feel soft 
 and oily. Another opinion of its goodness may also 
 be formed this way; that is, where you see trees 
 grow freely, or rich and luxuriant crops of corn or 
 grass appear, you may take it for granted that the 
 soil they grow in is good. That in which you per- 
 ceive veins of rust or oxide of iron, called by farmers 
 till or fox-bent, ought to be avoided, or at least it 
 ought not to be used till after it has lain some time, 
 been repeatedly turned, and exposed to all the action 
 of the weather rain, sun, and air. 
 
 After having made choice of your soil, the next 
 
20 THE CARNATION. 
 
 inquiry is, how it may be improved, and made to con- 
 tribute in a higher degree to vegetation. 
 
 I shall now proceed to describe the process which 
 I have used for its amelioration, and state the differ- 
 ent component parts or ingredients which I have 
 mixed and put together as a compost for Carnations, 
 the same which I have used with success for some 
 years, and which I now beg to recommend to my 
 brother florists for trial. 
 
 COMPOST, MODE OF PREPARING IT, &c. 
 
 IN putting the different soils together for compost, 
 particular care must be taken to make it of such 
 consistency, that, when in pots, the water shall neither 
 pass through it too rapidly, nor lodge too long in it ; 
 both are hurtful. If the loam be of a strong, stiff 
 nature, it will require a greater portion of sand to be 
 added ; if light, it will require less. You will there- 
 fore, in the first instance, be guided by the nature 
 
THE CARNATION. 21 
 
 and quality of your loam or mould : this I hold ex- 
 tremely essential to be attended to. 
 
 Kirwan, in .his Treatise on Manures, expressly 
 states,, f That the proportion of each ingredient, and 
 f the general texture of the soil, must be such, as to 
 ' enable it to admit and retain as much water as is 
 ' necessary to vegetation, and no more.' 
 
 The simple earths or soils, it is well known, vary 
 greatly in regard to their retentive powers of pre- 
 serving moisture. The time that I generally set 
 about mixing the compost is towards the end of the 
 summer, when the melons and cucumbers have done 
 bearing, whose beds furnish me with the dung 
 proper for my purpose. 
 
 Requiring a large quantity of mould, for I mostly 
 bloom about 500 pots of Carnations, I take in the 
 following ratios : 
 
 1 Load of fresh yellow loam, 
 
 \ Ditto of common black earth or garden 
 mould, 
 
 2 Ditto of rotten horse-dung, 
 
 4 Large barrows of coarse sand from some 
 
22 THE CARNATION. 
 
 wash or pond by the high road side, or 
 dry road grit in lieu thereof, laid up to 
 dry, and run through a sieve. 
 
 Note 1. The loam in my neighbourhood being 
 mostly of a stiff quality, requires a large 
 portion of sand to bring it to a proper 
 consistency, to enable the water to pass 
 through in any moderate time. 
 
 2. Rotten dung from mushroom beds ought 
 not to be used in this compost, on account 
 of the fungous fibres. 
 
 For an abridged quantity, say 
 
 5 Barrows of loam, or maiden earth, 
 
 8 or 9 Ditto of horse-dung, from the frames, 
 
 1 Ditto of coarse sand, or more, according to 
 the nature of the loam. 
 
 Let these be mixed and thrown together in a heap 
 or ridge, and turned two or three times in the 
 winter, particularly in frosty weather, that it may be 
 well incorporated. 
 
 On a dry day towards the end of November, I 
 take a barrow of fresh lime, which, as soon as it is 
 slacked, I strew it over while hot in turning the 
 
THE CARNATION. 23> 
 
 heap ; this accelerates the rotting of the fibrous par- 
 ticles in the loam, lightens the soil, and destroys the 
 grubs, worms, and slugs. Lime is too well known 
 as a manure to say anything further in its praise 
 here. 
 
 APPLICATION OF SALT AS A MANURE. 
 
 IF there has been much rain during the winter, so 
 that the strength of the compost is reduced, and the 
 salts washed from it, I take about 7 Ibs. of damaged 
 salt, and add them to it, either dissolved in water, 
 or strewed over with the hand. This, from an ex- 
 perience of three years, I have found to be attended 
 with the most beneficial effect upon the future health 
 and vigour of the plants. 
 
 During very heavy rains, many florists cover their 
 compost with tarpaulin or double mats, to prevent 
 the nutritious particles from being washed out ; this 
 is also an excellent precaution. 
 
 If any objection be started, that the quantity of 
 
24 THE CARNATION. 
 
 dung is too great in proportion to that of the loam, 
 I answer, that such an objection might be well- 
 founded, if the compost were to be used immediately 
 on its being mixed together ; but as it has to lie six 
 months before it is used, I am decidedly of opinion 
 that the quantity is not more than is necessary in 
 order to insure a luxuriant growth and a generous 
 bloom. 
 
 It is, moreover, indispensably necessary, that the 
 compost should lie that time ; that the different in- 
 gredients may be properly incorporated one with 
 another ; that the loam may be well pulverized, and 
 the whole duly prepared and sweetened by frequent 
 turning ; and that the carbonaceous principle of 
 matter in the dung, according to Hassenfraz, may, 
 through the medium of the rains, like a leaven, ex- 
 tend to and pervade the whole mass, so as to render 
 it fit, wholesome, and nutritious food for the plants 
 it has to sustain. 
 
THE CARNATION. 25 
 
 CONSTITUENT PRINCIPLES OF PLANTS. 
 
 IT may perhaps not be thought improper in this 
 place to state, that all plants, by chemical analysis, 
 are found to consist of particles of calcareous earth, 
 oil, water, and air, with a portion of iron. 
 
 CHARACTERISTICS OF A BAD AND GOOD 
 FLORIST, &c. 
 
 THE gentleman or lady's gardener, who has no 
 other motive to incite him, beyond that of perform- 
 ing what he is ordered to do, will imagine all this 
 vast preparation of soils, all this extraordinary com- 
 rnixtion, a very unnecessary and useless trouble, and 
 will be disposed to slight and neglect it. In fact, I 
 have nowhere seen flowers so ill-treated and mis- 
 managed (with few exceptions) as in the gardens of 
 the nobility and gentry, even when there has been a 
 collection of fine flowers I allude not to Carnations 
 
 C 
 
26 THE CARNATION. 
 
 and Pinks only, but to flowers generally. Yet, on 
 the other hand, there is a strong apology to he 
 offered for this neglect in the gardener, as far as it 
 regards Carnations and Pinks, for I have mostly 
 noticed them to be of the worst and most common 
 description, such as I would not give a place to in 
 my garden. To cultivate a bad flower, which has 
 neither beauty nor hardly any smell, is attended 
 with the same trouble as there is in cultivating a 
 good one ; and, in the present greatly improved state 
 of both, there is no difficulty to select good ones. 
 
 But the thorough-bred florist, who derives pleasure 
 from the pursuit, and who has always the flower- 
 fever strong upon him ; \vho has rivals to contend 
 with ; who is incited by the love of fame, and the 
 hope of winning the first splendid prize at some 
 exhibition ; who will walk fifty miles to catch a 
 glimpse of some new celebrated flower, and who, if 
 it meets his fancy, will sooner pawn the coat from off 
 his back, than not obtain it; who will leave his warm 
 and comfortable bed at midnight, to rise and destroy 
 the cursed earwigs, that shall dare to attack his 
 
THE CARNATION. 27 
 
 favourite blossom; will begrudge no labour, and 
 neglect no pains, to perform this part well, on which 
 he knows his chance of success principally depends. 
 With the latter, especially if he be young in the 
 fancy, my only fear is, lest he over-do his part. To 
 such a one, if you give a receipt for any particular 
 composition, and recommend one peck of soot, most 
 probably he will put two if two pounds of salt, he 
 will put four if three pails of blood, he will put 
 six if four barrows of sugar-baker's scum, he will 
 put eight and so on. 
 
 REMOVING OF THE PLANTS INTO LARGE POTS 
 TO BLOOM. 
 
 IN our variable climate, the first week in April is 
 the safest and best time to perform this : the pots 
 generally made use of for this purpose, are those of 
 twelve or sixteen to a cast. 
 
 A twelve-sized pot will contain three or four 
 plants, according to their habit of growth a six- 
 
 C 2 
 
28 THE CARNATION. 
 
 teen, two or three, according to the same rule. Be 
 careful to put two or three large bits of tile at the 
 bottom, or the hollow part of a large oyster-shell, 
 resting upon a tile, to preserve a secure drainage for 
 the water. Stagnant water, whether in pots or in 
 the open fields, is alike prejudicial to all plants, 
 except aquatics. 
 
 The pots to be filled three parts full with com- 
 post, in its rough or coarse state from the heap, 
 using fine or sifted mould only at the top, around 
 the roots of the plants, which must not be planted 
 deeper than they were before. 
 
 The mould to be well shaken down, to prevent its 
 settling after. The coarse parts, or riddlings, that 
 would not pass through the sieve, may also be put 
 at the bottom, filling each pot about three inches 
 deep with them. 
 
 At this season of the year, when they want water, 
 let it be given in the morning, rather than in the 
 evening, till about the middle of May, on account of 
 the frosts which will often recur at that time. When 
 the plants begin to spindle, or shoot up for bloom, 
 
THE CARNATION. 29 
 
 they require to be supported by sticks, about four 
 feet in length ; some of tall growth, as Humphrey's 
 Clarence, Snook's Defiance, Fulbrook's Grenadier, 
 Wood's Ambassador, &c., require sticks five feet long. 
 
 THE APHIS, OR GREEN FLY. 
 
 IN some seasons, these Aphides, or flies, appear in 
 astonishing numbers, as was the case last summer, 
 and attack the Rose and Carnation in particular. 
 They congregate in countless swarms round the 
 stems and on the foliage of both, and adhere closely 
 to the bud of the Rose and the pod of the Carnation, 
 to the great injury of the health of both. 
 
 They should be brushed off from the Carnation 
 with a soft brush repeatedly ; but if this is found 
 inefficient to dislodge and disperse them, take some 
 pungent Scotch snuff and scatter over them, two or 
 three times, when the plants are moist, or covered 
 with dew. A weak infusion of tobacco in water may 
 be applied with a soft brush with effect, and without 
 
THE CARNATION. 
 
 injury. A weak infusion of lime-water and sulphur 
 may also be used in a clarified state. 
 
 THE EAR -WIG. 
 
 OF all the enemies that the Carnation has to en- 
 counter, the ear-wig is the most troublesome and 
 destructive. It attacks that part of the flower which 
 is called the nectarium, and eats the petals through 
 just at their root ; if it be not sufficiently open to 
 admit its descent down the corolla, it will eat its way 
 to it through the outside of the calix. 
 
 There is no entire preventive,, but the most effec- 
 tual method is, to support your stage upon legs, 
 placed in cast-iron pans, about six inches deep, filled 
 with water. Bean-stalks, cut into lengths of six or 
 eight inches, may be set as traps round the stage, 
 and close to the stems of the flower, which should be 
 examined every morning at least, and the ear-wigs 
 blown out into a bottle of water. 
 
 Bowls of tobacco-pipes, or the claws of lobsters, 
 
THE CARNATION. 31 
 
 may be placed for the same purpose on the tops of 
 the sticks ; but, use what precautions you will, you 
 cannot entirely prevent their ravages. 
 
 An experienced florist once informed me that he 
 usually fixed a small bit of sponge, or cotton dipped 
 in sweet oil, to the stick that supports the stem ; he 
 assured me that he had every reason to be satisfied 
 with this experiment, and that it proved an effectual 
 barrier to the passage of the ear-wig and other insects. 
 
 Nr. Nicol, in his * Gardener's Calendar/ recom- 
 mends a pencil or small brush to be dipped in oil, 
 and drawn round the pot, near the bottom, when they 
 are in flower, every two or three days, to prevent the 
 ear-wigs and snails from climbing up and doing any 
 injury. Sweet-oil, or rather linseed-oil as the cheapest, 
 may be used in this way, I have no doubt, with a 
 good effect ; for sweet-oil, if it comes in contact with 
 the bodies of most insects, will occasion their almost 
 immediate death. 
 
THE CARNATION. 
 
 THE GRUB. 
 
 THERE is another foe which you must guard against, 
 a grub, about an inch long, of the caterpillar tribe, 
 of a green, olive, or brown colour, according to the 
 food it feeds on : it will ascend the stalk during the 
 night, and consume part of the petals, eating holes 
 in the pod, and then descend, and bury itself during 
 the day, just under the surface of the mould, often 
 near the foot of the stem ; and so will continue to 
 renew its attack night after night. When the blos- 
 som is in a dying state, it will often secrete itself in 
 the seed-vessel, and devour the whole interior of that 
 and every other on the stem, if not discovered. 
 
 THE WIRE-WORM. 
 
 THE wire- worm, of a yellowish cast, with a black 
 head, and nearly an inch in length when full grown, 
 is another destructive enemy to the Carnation and 
 
THE CARNATION. 33 
 
 Pink. As it works below the surface of the ground, 
 it is not easily detected; nothing, in fact,, but the 
 dead or dying state of the plant points out its re- 
 treat. It attacks the stem just at the root, and will 
 perforate it through and through. It is introduced 
 into gardens, for the most part, with the fresh loam, 
 in the turning of which the eye should always be on 
 the look-out for this pernicious insect, which, when 
 met with, never, I believe, escapes destruction. 
 
 I met with two a few days ago, and tried what 
 effect a little quick lime had upon them. I scattered 
 a little over them, but it seemed to make no other 
 impression than to induce them to move from it with 
 more speed than they are generally accustomed to do, 
 I brought them back to it again, and kept them there 
 for a couple of minutes ; but they were still able to 
 crawl from it, apparently not much hurt by it, and 
 they effected their retreat to a heap of mould hard 
 by. The only sure way to deal with them, is, f to 
 catch them and kill them.' 
 
 I am very little acquainted with the natural his- 
 tory of this destructive insect, which breeds with as- 
 
 C 5 
 
34 THE CARNATION. 
 
 tonishing rapidity : it deposits its eggs in the ground 
 like the slug, without any particular precaution ; in 
 turning over lately some horse-dung, which had lain 
 in the corner of a kitchen-garden two or three years, 
 I discovered and picked out several of these eggs, 
 which were of various sizes, from a pin's head to that 
 of a small sweet-scented pea just beginning to sprout. 
 I took one of the largest of these bladdery-formed 
 substances, and with a gentle pressure of the finger 
 and thumb, forced through a small aperture at the 
 top of the neck five of these insects, one after another, 
 completely formed, and able to crawl about. The 
 rest,, which were in a less forward state, were collected 
 and put into a saucer, and being exposed to the sun 
 were soon dried up, the external membrane or bladder 
 only remaining. 
 
 TOP DRESSING IN JUNE. 
 
 As frequent watering of the plants in pots, in dry 
 and hot seasons, must tend to exhaust the vegetative 
 
THE CARNATION. 35 
 
 powers of the compost, and weaken its strength, I 
 generally, about the beginning or middle of June, 
 top-dress, with about half an inch of rotten horse- 
 dung passed through a sieve, which I find materially 
 to assist the plants, and promote the growth of the 
 layers, on which depends the preservation of your 
 collection. Many top-dress with some of the hotter 
 manures of night-soil, sugar-baker's scum, &c., but, 
 in my opinion, that is not necessary for Carnations, 
 and is attended with danger ; for, if they are not re- 
 duced to a perfect mould, they will corrode and burn 
 the plants. 
 
 An immoderate use of strong manures to most 
 plants, is like the immoderate use of hot spirituous 
 liquors to the human frame ; they force and excite 
 for a time, only to weaken and destroy. 
 
 HOT MANURES, AND THE APPLICATION 
 OF THEM. 
 
 STRONG compost, in which the chief ingredients are 
 sugar-baker's scum, soap-boiler's waste, night-soil, 
 
36 THE CARNATION. 
 
 the dung of pigeons and poultry in general, of deer 
 arid sheep, blood, soot, lime, gypsum, &c. &c. should, 
 in my humble opinion, be used only in surface or 
 top-dressing of flowers ; as is the case when applied 
 to land, unless you are disposed to wait two or three 
 years, till they have lost much of their strength, and 
 are reduced nearly to mould ; they may then be used 
 as simple ingredients along with loam. 
 
 A few short observations respecting two or three of 
 which, may, perhaps, not prove unacceptable in this 
 place. 
 
 Blood, as a manure, is considered the strongest 
 and most lasting of all, and, when mixed up with 
 mould as a compost, is not fit for use under two com- 
 plete years. The same is the case with night-soil, 
 sugar-baker's scum, pigeon-dung, &c. Soot is of 
 that hot, caustic nature, that it ought always to be 
 used with caution, and in small quantities. The 
 dung of sheep I consider the most fertilizing to all 
 grasses, and I recommend it as an excellent ingre- 
 dient in all composts for Pinks, Carnations, and Au- 
 riculas ; because, in all pastures and meadows, where 
 
THE CARNATION. 37 
 
 any considerable flock of sheep has been grazing any 
 length of time, so as to leave behind a tolerable 
 dressing of dung, after their removal,, you will per- 
 ceive the grass to shoot up freely, and to assume a 
 rich verdure and healthy appearance ; not rank and 
 coarse, yet vigorous and elastic, such as the florist 
 would wish to see his Pinks and Carnations assume, 
 previous to their coming into bloom. This dung, 
 the principal component parts of which are nearly 
 all soluble in water, will not be fit for use till it has 
 been incorporated with the mould a twelvemonth. 
 
 The ingenious florist has frequent recourse to those 
 strong manures, and uses them in various ways. 
 Some he incorporates with his compost, in which he 
 grows his plants some he uses separately and un- 
 mixed, for surface- dressing others he infuses in 
 water, and applies in a liquid state all this he does 
 from an almost universally received opinion, that 
 they will increase and heighten the colours of his 
 flowers, and give them a brilliancy, which he sup- 
 poses they never could attain without them. 
 
 Plants that live all the year round in pots, parti- 
 
38 
 
 THE CARNATION. 
 
 cularly exotics,, must, no doubt,, be benefited by this 
 surface- dressing, with the strong manures, which 
 should be applied a few weeks before they flower ; as 
 Geraniums, Camelias, Orange-trees, &c. 
 
 Towards the end of February, I generally apply 
 a top-dressing, of about half an inch thick, to the 
 Double Primrose, Polyanthus, and Auricula, that 
 are in pots, having first removed the mould at the 
 top, whose place it has to supply, without injury to 
 the fibres ; the vegetative and nutritious properties 
 of which, by watering, long confinement in the frame, 
 and seclusion from the open air, must be greatly de- 
 teriorated, if not rendered sour, acrid, and unwhole- 
 some. 
 
 The beneficial effect of such dressing is fully ap- 
 parent. You need only try the experiment on two 
 pots, and then compare them with two others, that 
 you have not meddled with, to be convinced of its 
 utility. 
 
 The improved health and vigour of the plants 
 will be visible, from their improved verdure and 
 strength ; their blossoms will be larger and finer, and 
 
THE CARNATION. 39 
 
 the texture of the petals firmer and stronger; their 
 state and condition will be such as to extort from the 
 enraptured florist,, the following emphatical expres- 
 sion of delight : 
 
 1 Here's beauty I Here's cloth, colour, and gold for you ! c 
 
 An expression which once I heard,, with no small 
 pleasure, acompanied with the most extravagant ges- 
 ticulation of body. 
 
 COMMON GARDEN MANURE. 
 
 MANURE for the garden is generally confined to 
 horse-dung and straw-litter, rotted by frequent turn- 
 ing and working, which excites fermentation, and 
 hastens its decay; this operation is too frequently 
 performed in situations where the juices or fluids that 
 come from it run away and are lost, by which means 
 the saline and other nutritious qualities are reduced, 
 and the strength and efficacy of the whole greatly 
 impaired. The carbonaceous principle, likewise, 
 which is produced by fermentation occasioned by the 
 decomposition and decay of all vegetable substances, 
 
40 
 
 THE CARNATION. 
 
 lying any length of time in a state of putrefaction ; 
 as well as by combustion, whether open or hidden ; 
 and which forms a very essential part in all vegeta- 
 tive matter, fertilizing the various soils mixed with it, 
 is in a great degree lost to the manure so situated. 
 
 The market-gardener will inform you, that one 
 load of horse-dung, sufficiently turned, fermented, 
 and rotted, to enable him to dig it in the ground, is 
 worth three, in point of effect and service, of that 
 which has been used in the forcing of melons and 
 cucumbers. 
 
 The best, and in fact the most economicaiemode of 
 preparing manure, either for the field or garden, and 
 which is now generally practised by all skilful agri- 
 culturists as well as horticulturists, is this ; I will 
 describe the process upon a small scale, as adapted 
 to the garden. 
 
 Take, towards the autumn, two loads of fresh 
 loam or mould from some common waste or upland 
 pasture, spread them eighteen inches thick upon the 
 ground, the spot chosen for which ought to be rather 
 hollow, that is, sloping a little on all sides towards 
 
THE CARNATION. 4}. 
 
 the centre, in the form of a very shallow bowl ; upon 
 this stratum or bed of mould shoot five or six loads 
 of horse-dung. This must be turned over and wa- 
 tered if necessary, till it begins to ferment and heat ; 
 this is the first stage of decomposition. The turning 
 and watering will soon occasion it to decay and rot ; 
 the fermented and strongly impregnated juices pro- 
 ceeding from the dung, and the ullage occasioned 
 from time to time by the rains, will all be received 
 and absorbed in the mould below it, so that none of 
 the saline particles, which are accounted the grand 
 fertilizers of the earth, will escape and be lost. 
 
 How often emotions of regret, at the folly and ig- 
 norance of our English farmers, have loeen excited in 
 the breast of the celebrated agriculturist, Arthur 
 Young, Esq., while riding through the country, in 
 seeing heaps of manure lying on eminences by the 
 road sides, and the black, impregnated juices drain- 
 ing from it, and running in waste into the ditches ; 
 which, if they had been preserved in the manner 
 described, would have served to fertilize their fields ; 
 the residuum being comparatively a corpus mortuum > 
 
42 
 
 THE CARNATION. 
 
 deprived of half its virtue, strength, and efficacy. 
 But to proceed : if you wish to make use of any of 
 this compost for the choicer vegetables in the kitchen 
 garden, you have only to mix the whole together, 
 and apply it in the spring ; but if it be intended as 
 manure to mix with loam for flowering shrubs, pines, 
 plants, &c., or for flower borders and beds, it will be 
 requisite to keep it a twelvemonth longer, making 
 eighteen months in all, before it will be fit for use, 
 and sufficiently comminuted and rotten to pass 
 through a coarse sieve. The addition of this fresh 
 earth to exhausted and worn-out gardens will be at- 
 tended with much benefit. 
 
 In the beginning of March mix and incorporate 
 the whole together ; turn it again in April, and again 
 in May ; then put it together in the form of a ridge, 
 and let it remain so till Michaelmas. To preserve the 
 compost from losing its strength, by the powerful 
 exhalation of its saline properties by the sun in sum- 
 mer, 'incrustit with mould, or cover it with hurdles of 
 reeds or w r ith loose litter. 
 
 This rule, however, does not apply to such ma- 
 
THE CARNATION. 43 
 
 nures as take a longer time to prepare them, before 
 they can be used as compost for delicate flowers. 
 Night-soil requires a constant exposure for two years, 
 to get rid of its strong sulphuric acid ; soap-boiler's 
 lye, to neutralize its powerful alkaline salt ; sugar- 
 baker's scum, to divest it of its predominant saccha- 
 rine property ; and cow-dung, to correct its crude ace- 
 tous quality. 
 
 Wood-shavings, when rotten and decayed, saw- 
 dust, tan, the bark and small branches of trees in 
 general, lying any length of time, acquire this carbo- 
 naceous principle, and make a good ingredient in 
 compost for many plants, the Auricula in particular. 
 It is this coaly property that gives the dark-brown 
 discolouring to water, and of which soot and ashes 
 may be said to contain the very essence. 
 
 LEAF-MOULD, ITS USES AND MODE OF 
 PREPARING. 
 
 LEAF-MOULD is the finest and most valuable of all 
 the artificial soils, and is used by the skilful gardener 
 
44 THE CARNATION. 
 
 in a variety of ways : with a portion of this, a little 
 maiden earth, old rotten horse-dung and sand, he 
 pipes his Pinks, and pipes and lays his Carnations; 
 in a mixture of this he plants his seedling Auriculas 
 and young off-sets ; there is hardly any plant, how- 
 ever delicate and tender, that will not grow and thrive 
 in it. 
 
 Every one that has the means and opportunity of 
 doing it, ought, towards the end of October, to collect 
 the leaves when in a moist state, and put them in a 
 hole made for that purpose, mixing at the same time 
 with them a little quick-lime to hasten their decay, 
 and a small portion of earth. They may lie in that 
 state till spring, when they ought to be turned over, 
 repeating the same about once in six weeks after- 
 wards, till they become quite decayed and pulverized. 
 If there be not a very great body of leaves together, 
 by this process they generally become fit for use in 
 twelve months. 
 
THE CARNATION. 45 
 
 SALT AS A MANURE CONSIDERED. 
 
 THE application of salt, and its utility as a manure, 
 are yet imperfectly understood. It is a matter of 
 uncertainty,, whether it acts directly as a manure, or 
 only as a kind of spice or seasoning, thereby render- 
 ing the soil a more palatable food for plants. Be 
 that as it may, if it acts beneficially in any manner, 
 it ought to be adopted. 
 
 The evidence adduced before the late Committee 
 in the House of Commons was of a contradictory 
 nature ; yet the preponderance of opinions advanced, 
 and of experiments detailed, w r as greatly in favour of 
 it. A small pamphlet, published by Mr. Parke on 
 the subject, may be read with much interest. 
 
 The main question as it stands at present is, 
 What is the proper quantity to be used on arable or 
 grass lands, and which is the proper time for its ap- 
 plication ? 
 
 I have used it for these three years past in compost 
 for flowers, and shall continue to do so, from a per- 
 
40 THE CARNATION. 
 
 suasion of its beneficial effects. A Scotch gardener, 
 to whom I related the use of salt as manure, endea- 
 voured to dissuade me from doing it ; his opinion, 
 no doubt, was regulated by the account of the expe- 
 riment of salt-water (sea-water) given by his coun- 
 tryman, Walter Nicol. ' Ah, man,' said he, ' it will 
 destroy all your flowers, root and branch, for nothing 
 will grow where salt is.' I however still persisted to 
 use it. Five or six years previous to this, I had a 
 few favourite Cloves growing in the ground, and was 
 anxious to protect them from the slugs and snails, by 
 which their foliage had been much injured ; I was 
 told that salt was an excellent remedy against them ; 
 accordingly I strewed a handful or two of it close to 
 the roots and over the foliage of the plants, in order, 
 as I thought, to preserve them from being eaten up by 
 them ; but judge of my surprise in a few days after, 
 I observed them to turn yellow and sickly ; in fact, 
 they languished for a while, and died. And such 
 would have been their fate, if I had put fresh soot,, 
 quick-lime, night-soil, sugar-baker's scum, or any 
 other hot manure in a green or rank state ; from 
 
THE CARNATION. 47 
 
 which circumstance I was not unaware of the effects 
 of salt injudiciously applied. 
 
 CARE OF CARNATIONS (continued.) 
 
 PODDING, CARDING, AND WIRING. 
 
 CARNATIONS require to be watered freely while the 
 pods are swelling ; and, in fact, during the whole 
 time they continue in blossom, they ought to be kept 
 moist, and never be suffered to flag for want of it. 
 Most flowers require the same treatment. 
 
 At this season it is better to water with the pipe 
 of the garden-pot, in preference to the rose, and to 
 pour it upon an oyster-shell, placed on the top of the 
 flower-pot, to receive and break the force of the 
 water ; this will prevent it from making holes in the 
 mould, and laying bare the roots. Some sorts seem 
 to suffer from water, however soft it may be, when 
 poured all over the layers, in hot weather ; the ends 
 of the grass very often will turn white and sickly, as 
 
48 
 
 THE CARNATION. 
 
 if they had been parboiled and scalded. If the 
 grass appears short and backward for laying, water 
 once or twice a week, with a weak infusion of horse 
 or sheep dung, prepared in a tub for that purpose ; 
 this wash will both promote the growth of the layers, 
 and give a depth and richness of colouring to such 
 flowers as are apt to come pale and short of it. 
 
 As soon as the side-shoots appear, they should be 
 stripped off, to give strength to the main stem. To 
 flowers which you intend to exhibit, if a small or 
 thinnish one, leave only two pods on a stem ; to a 
 large or full one, leave three ; there are many excep- 
 tions ; some require nearly the whole to be left on. 
 
 In order to prevent the pods from bursting, or 
 opening irregularly, a small piece of bass-mat dipt 
 in water should be carefully tied round the middle of 
 each pod, but not before it is nearly full-formed ; it 
 will also require easing from time to time, as the pod 
 continues to increase and grow. 
 
 If you perceive the pod inclined to burst on one 
 side, give ease to it on the other also, by slitting the 
 cup with a sharp knife, or with a thin bit of ivory, 
 
THE CARNATION. 49 
 
 generally fixed to the end of the etui, made use of 
 for dressing the flower : in a crowded pod it is always 
 best to ease it in time, by cutting the cup in the 
 several indentures or scallops marked at the top ; the 
 guard-leaves will then fall in regular order all round. 
 
 As soon as the large external petals of the flower 
 or guard-leaves begin to expand, drop, and fall back, 
 a paper collar should be placed round the bottom of 
 the blossom to support it. These collars are made 
 of white thin card paper, in the form of a circle of 
 three or four inches in diameter, with a hole in the 
 centre just large enough to admit the calix or pod, 
 without much compressing, and with a cut extending 
 from the centre to the outside or circumference, like 
 the radius of a circle. On these cards the flower is 
 preserved in shape and form a long time ; on these 
 the petals also are finely disposed, and the beauty of 
 the Carnation displayed to great advantage. 
 
 To support the blossoms when carded, and to 
 keep them from being blown about by the wind, as 
 well as to sustain the additional weight of the cards, 
 
 a small thin brass wire, about three inches long, 
 
 D 
 
50 THE CARNATION. 
 
 though different lengths are required, in the shape 
 of a common wire skewer, is usually fixed to the 
 stick ; one end, which is twisted into the form of a 
 hook or head of a shepherd's crook, is placed round 
 the bottom of the pod ; and the other end, which is 
 sharpened, is forced with a pair of wire nippers into 
 the stick. This may be easily effected after a trial 
 or two. 
 
 Wire, proper for this use, may be had at any of 
 the wire-shops ; there are three or four shops of this 
 description near the Monument, in the city of Lon- 
 don, where they manufacture them ready for use, at 
 so much a hundred. 
 
 PROTECTION OF THE BLOSSOMS FROM 
 RAIN, &c. 
 
 THE moment the Carnations begin to unfold their 
 blossoms, they should be covered from the rain and 
 scorching sun; they should either be covered with 
 small glasses or with paper caps, in the shape of an 
 umbrella, with a tube in the centre, to be fixed on 
 
THE CARNATION. 51 
 
 the tops of the sticks. If you would preserve the 
 beauty of a Carnation untarnished,, it should not be 
 suffered to have a single drop of rain. Those caps 
 and glasses may be put over the Carnations for ten 
 or twelve days before they are placed on the stage. 
 
 Several ladies and gentlemen that do not use 
 stages, are in the habit of placing them in the front 
 of their green-houses, in the absence of their cus- 
 tomary plants, which at this season are set in the 
 open air. This appears to me an excellent situation, 
 if they are allowed air enough, not only because 
 they are sheltered from the rain and sun, but be- 
 cause they are more out of the reach of the grubs, 
 snails, and ear-wigs, provided they do not put them 
 there sooner, nor keep them longer, than is neces- 
 sary. The same remark applies with no less force 
 to the stage. Do not, then, let the general health 
 of your plants be endangered or injured, for the sake 
 of preserving the blossoms unhurt. 
 
 When placed on the stage, they should have the 
 benefit of the morning sun till about nine or ten 
 
 o'clock, according to the intense heat of its rays 
 
 D 2 
 
52 THE CARNATION. 
 
 the same in the evening", with as much open ex- 
 posure to the air at all times as you can give them, 
 without injury to the bloom. 
 
 RUN FLOWERS CONSIDERED. 
 
 THERE is one subject arising out of the present, to 
 which I wish to call the reader's attention a sub- 
 ject which, I frankly confess, I can neither compre- 
 hend nor explain ; and the opinions that I have 
 ventured to offer, whether my own or borrowed, are 
 founded altogether on hypothesis, conjecture, and 
 uncertainty. What I allude to are, in the language 
 of a florist, the "Run-flowers." 
 
 Any one conversant with Carnations must have 
 remarked, in some sorts, a singular tendency to run 
 from their distinct and regularly-disposed colours. 
 For instance, a Scarlet Bizarre, that is strongly 
 marked with stripes of clove colour, will frequently 
 change into a self-coloured flower, like the common 
 clove j a Purple Bizarre, in like manner, will change 
 
THE CARNATION. 53 
 
 to a plain purple ; a Scarlet Flake to a plain scarlet, 
 and so on through all their varieties. A flower so 
 run loses all its estimation in the eyes of a florist, 
 and occasions him frequent regret and disappoint- 
 ment: for the chance of its returning to its true 
 
 ' O 
 
 colour is as one to one hundred. In fact, it may be 
 considered to him as lost. 
 
 " So it falls out, 
 
 That what we have we prize not to the worth, 
 While we enjoy it ; but, being lack'd and lost, 
 Why then we reck the value ; then we find 
 The virtue, that possession would not shew us^ 
 While it was ours." 
 
 What is it, then, that causes this changeable dis- 
 position and suffusion of colour ? Sir Humphry 
 Davy, perhaps, could have given a correct solution to 
 the question, and suggested the proper means of pre- 
 vention. Many attribute it to an over-richness of 
 the compost ; that is, when too great a proportion of 
 dung is mixt with the loam, I am inclined to think 
 that there is a great degree of truth in the observa- 
 tion, but I am far from imagining that this is the 
 only cause ; for I have remarked, that Carnations, 
 
54 THE CARNATION. 
 
 planted in the open ground in ordinary soil, will 
 often sport, though not so frequently. 
 
 An old florist, who had grown Carnations for 
 more than thirty years, and who had often tried 
 them in poor soil, as well as in rich, assured me that 
 he had found them to sport in both, but oftener in 
 the rich; but that every season was not alike, for 
 they would change some years more than they would 
 in others. He concluded with this remark, that 
 the gout would attack the poor liver as well as the 
 rich, if there was a disposition in the body to have 
 it such was the case, he conceived, with the Car- 
 nation. 
 
 Some again affirm, without being able to explain 
 the process, that it is owing to the fixed alkalis not 
 being properly neutralized by the vegetable and 
 vitriolic acids, that the natural colours are dis- 
 charged. I confess that I am not chemist enough 
 to understand such an operation of nature. 
 
 The summer of 1818, it will be remembered, was 
 a very hot and dry summer, and there was a general 
 complaint among the florists that their flowers had 
 
THE CARNATION. 55 
 
 sported, and run from their colours, in an extraordi- 
 nary degree. A neighbour of mine, who had also 
 his share of run-flowers that summer, attributed it 
 to his having neglected mixing slacked lime with 
 his compost, the doing which he had not omitted, 
 he said, for several years before. 
 
 In discoursing also with an experienced gardener 
 the same summer on the subject, he attributed it to 
 the powerful influence of the sun acting upon the 
 corolla, or flower-leaves, whilst in embryo, which, he 
 said, would start the strongest or most predominant 
 colour, and make it suffuse and overrun the whole ; 
 for that evidently no change could take place in the 
 plant to produce that alteration in the colour, previ- 
 ous to the formation of the pod, notwithstanding all 
 the boasted prognostications about run-flowers, from 
 redness on the joints of the stalk, and red strokes on 
 the pod, before it opens. 
 
 After all this discussion on the subject, I believe 
 I must leave it as I found it, uncertain and unde- 
 termined . 
 
56 THE CARNATION. 
 
 COMPOST FOR FLOWERS THAT ARE APT TO 
 SPORT IN COLOUR. 
 
 As, however, it is always best and safest to be on 
 the right side, and to adopt a system of caution in 
 all matters where there is a degree of danger and 
 risk to encounter, I beg to recommend a plan, which 
 prudence suggests, and which I mean in future to 
 adopt myself, with respect to a few sorts of the 
 two classes of Scarlet and Crimson Bizarres, which, 
 from their high colouring, I have found to sport 
 more than others ; that is, to lower the compost. 
 
 I here subjoin the names of a few flowers, be- 
 cause they rank among the finest and best we have, 
 
 viz. : 
 
 Humphrey's Duke of Clarence, 
 James's Lord Craven, 
 Hoyle's General Washington, 
 Weltje's Sir Edward Pellew, 
 Sharpe's Defiance, 
 Plummer's Lord Manners, 
 Gabell's Hero, 
 
THE CARNATION. 
 
 57 
 
 Cartwright's Rainbow, 
 Davey's Rainbow, 
 Phillip's Lord Harrington, 
 Tale's Waterloo, 
 Berryman's Jubilee, 
 Chaplain's Lord Duncan, 
 Cope's Suwarrow, 
 Stone's Venus. 
 
 R. 3 Barrows of sound staple loam, 
 
 1 Do. old rotten cow-dung, 
 
 2 Do. do. horse-dung, 
 J Do. sand, 
 
 J Do. lime rubbish, or old plaster. 
 
 To be prepared, and well incorporated, as before. 
 
 It is nearly in the same proportions, and of the 
 same component parts, as that used by the late in- 
 genious Mr. Homes, of Clapham Common, a gentle- 
 man noted for his fine collection of tulips, and his 
 successful cultivation of flowers in general. 
 
 D 5 
 
58 THE CARNATION. 
 
 THE YELLOW PICOTEE. 
 
 THE Yellow Picotee is, at all times, a difficult flower 
 to grow well in this country, on account of our moist 
 atmosphere and long winters. The Dutch florists 
 have bad success with it likewise, for the same 
 reason. The best situation for it is the front shelf 
 in a green-house, while in bloom, and the same 
 place is best for it in the winter months of January 
 and February, when it requires to be kept mode- 
 rately dry ; indeed it never likes to be over-saturated 
 with water at any time. If kept in frames, during 
 the winter, it ought to be allowed to occupy the 
 front rows, at the back part, as being the driest and 
 most airy. If placed in a damp situation, and over- 
 watered, if it does not perish, it will become unsound 
 and unhealthy, and consequently unable to carry its 
 bloom. 
 
 It is generally scarce, for there is never any great 
 stock of it in the country, though it is so constantly 
 imported from the Continent, particularly by the 
 
!K )L LOW PI C O TK 
 

 
 
THE CARNATION. 59 
 
 families of the nobility and gentry, in their excur- 
 sions thither, and with whom it seems to be a very 
 great favourite. It is to be met with in many parts 
 of Italy, Germany, Prussia, and Flanders, in the 
 neighbourhood of Lausanne, in Switzerland, and of 
 Grenoble and Lyons, in the province of Dauphiny, 
 and other parts of France. 
 
 The Empress Josephine, distinguished among 
 other things for her great taste and fondness for 
 flowers, had, among an endless variety of elegant 
 and curious shrubs, plants, and flowers, an admir- 
 able collection of Yellow Picotees, at Malmaison. 
 Her gardens were then under the superintendence 
 of the celebrated botanist, Bonpland, who subse- 
 quently went to South America to prosecute his 
 favourite study under the patronage of the late Pre- 
 sident Bolivar. 
 
 The late Queen Charlotte and the Princesses, a 
 few years ago, had a very superb collection of yellow 
 Picotees at Frogmore, which were obtained principally 
 from Germany ; they w r ere the delight of all who saw 
 them. 
 
60 THE CARNATION. 
 
 A gentleman,, some time a resident in Ftmchal in 
 the island of Madeira., which lies off the north-west 
 coast of Africa, nearly opposite to Mogadore in the 
 kingdom of Morocco, informed me, that Picotees, 
 with yellow grounds, grew in great profusion in 
 most of the gardens in the island, and that the 
 varieties were beautiful; some were plain, others 
 again were marked with red or black spots, and others 
 curiously mottled. 
 
 This flower consists of many varieties : 
 
 Of yellow and purple, both light and dark ; 
 Ditto and dark red, or claret, colour ; 
 Ditto and scarlet ; 
 
 Ditto and pink, and plain yellow of various 
 shades. 
 
 
 Die Koeniginn Von Eng- 
 land, 
 Cupidon, 
 Pactolus, 
 Napoleon, 
 El Dorado, 
 Maximilian, 
 Louis Seize, 
 
 Le Dauphin de France, 
 Prince de Conde, 
 Count de Grasse, 
 Prince of Orange, 
 La Rose d'Or, 
 Flammula, 
 Goldfinch, 
 Maid of Magdeburg, 
 
THE CARNATION. 61 
 
 Maid of Orleans, | Le Cocu en colere, 
 
 Le Cocu content. | Princessinn Esterhazij, 
 
 &c. &c. &c. 
 
 I confess I am at a loss to say what compost is 
 proper to grow it in, and yet, after all, the fault per- 
 haps does not rest with the soil, but the climate, 
 which, take it the year round, is too harsh and moist 
 for this delicate exotic yet I recommend the fol- 
 lowing : 
 
 2 barrows of light loam, 
 1 do. leaf-mould, 
 1 do. old frame dung, 
 J do. old cow dung, 
 do. river sand. 
 
 MODE OF PRESERVING THE SEED. 
 
 To any one having an opportunity of collecting any 
 Yellow Picotee seed, which he may be desirous to 
 bring or send to England, I recommend him to put it 
 into a small phial or glass bottle, corked so as to 
 exclude the air. In this state, it will keep good for a 
 couple of years. 
 
62 THE CARNATION. 
 
 I have been often gratified with the sight of new 
 yellow Picotees from the south of Germany : their 
 colours were rich and vivid, unicolor, bicolor, and 
 tricolor ; the shape of the blossoms finely formed, 
 and the petals large and regular. The Bizarrerie 
 or mixture of tints in many of them was to me 
 quite new : I have seen chocolate and yellow ; pink 
 and yellow; sulphur and crimson; buff, scarlet, 
 and grey; yellow, purple, and white; yellow, crim- 
 son, and chocolate ; yellow, slate, and grey ; some 
 with scarlet stripes upon lilac grounds; and the 
 reverse, presenting the glossy appearance of satin. 
 Though the colours upon the whole were very dis- 
 tinct, and finely traced, yet in some they were most 
 strangely confused and oddly mixed, like a painter's 
 delineation of fire, or rather his representation of fire 
 and smoke, consisting of red, yellow, and ash colour, 
 both dark and light, as in the flowers named ' Phce- 
 nix inter flammas ;' Newton and Ippersill. 
 
 Any person desirous of viewing some of these new 
 and curious varieties, may have their desire gratified 
 by visiting my small garden in July next, (God 
 
THE CARNATION. 
 
 63 
 
 granting,) for the tenure of human life is very un- 
 certain in the most robust and healthful. 
 Their names run as follows : 
 
 Kaysernoon Russland, 
 Prinz Eugene, 
 
 Clemens, 
 
 Rodolpho, 
 
 Bernhaid, 
 
 Adam, 
 
 Fiirst Liechtenstein, 
 General Kleist, 
 
 Bellegarde, 
 
 Frimont, 
 
 Pauline Von Russland, 
 
 Landgravine, 
 
 Belle Bergere, 
 
 Amelia, 
 
 Agnes, 
 
 Bertha, 
 
 Maria, 
 
 Phyllis, 
 
 and many names of individuals sounding uncouthly 
 in an English ear, with their official titles of Amtman, 
 Heptman, Rittmeister, &c. &c. prefixed. 
 
 Sophia, 
 
 Arthur, 
 
 Heinrich, 
 
 Plinius, 
 
 Juno, 
 
 Apollo, 
 
 Phcenix, 
 
 Venus, 
 
 Luna, 
 
 Doernberg, 
 
 Villeda, 
 
 Retzau, 
 
 Welden, 
 
 Gracieuse, 
 
 Gloriosa, 
 
 La Magnifique, 
 
 Leibgardist, 
 
64 THE CARNATION. 
 
 THE OPERATION AND TIME OF PIPING. 
 
 THE propagation by piping, or cuttings, is more dif- 
 ficult with the Carnation than with either the Picotee 
 or Pink, and ought to commence as soon as the shoots 
 or grass are ready. 
 
 If you defer it till the bloom is nearly over, the 
 chance of success is still more precarious, as the 
 shoots get too hard and woody, and do not strike 
 root so readily as they do when taken sooner, and in 
 a more tender state. 
 
 The operation of piping, then, ought to com- 
 mence, for the reason above stated, about the first of 
 July. I am aware that the usual mode is to wait 
 until the flowers are in bloom, that you may see 
 whether they are in their right colours or not. But, 
 surely, it is no very difficult task to guard against 
 this, by keeping the cuttings of every plant separate. 
 Suppose you have three plants in one pot : you can 
 easily affix three separate tallies, or number-sticks, 
 with 1, 2, 3, on them, and also three other corre- 
 
THE CARNATION. 65 
 
 spending tallies to the pipings. By adopting this 
 simple method, and paying a little attention while 
 you are about it, it will be impossible not to keep a 
 tolerably correct account, But if you find too much 
 trouble or difficulty in keeping such an account as I 
 here point out, you may wait a fortnight or three 
 weeks longer, till the flowers are in bloom you will 
 still be in time ; but remember this, your chance of 
 success will be less, and your plants less also. Plants 
 raised from cuttings are, in general, preferable to 
 those from layers, because they are sounder, and will 
 encounter the rigours of a sharp winter better. I do 
 not infer from this that you should pipe all the shoots, 
 and by so great mutilation damage and disfigure the 
 plants just coming into bloom. On the contrary, 
 then, I recommend you to select and take the shoots 
 only where they appear crowded or too short, or too 
 high up the stalk to be laid easily, leaving the rest 
 to the more certain method of laying. Carnation 
 pipings succeed best upon a little dung-heap of blood 
 warmth, on a bed raised two or three feet above the 
 surface of the earth ; for, should the season be wet, 
 
66 THE CARNATION. 
 
 they are more out of the reach of the dampness of 
 the ground,, and also more exposed to the air. 
 Compost for piping should consist of 
 
 J. Maiden earth, 
 J Leaf mould, 
 ^ Rotten horse-dung, 
 $ Sand. 
 
 To be well mixed together, and passed through a 
 fine sieve, that the ends of the cuttings, when stuck 
 in, may enter easily and without injury. 
 
 The piping should be cut with a sharp pen or 
 budding knife, at the second or third joint, according 
 to the condition of the grass ; but the shorter the 
 better. The cut must take place horizontally, close 
 below the joint, and the sheath or part that covers 
 the joint must be carefully removed and peeled off. 
 
 When the pipings are cut, the surface of the bed 
 made flat and level, and gently watered through a 
 fine rose, they may be stuck in, three-quarters of an 
 inch deep, in rows, not too near together. Then let 
 them be watered again, which will help to fix the 
 earth close round them ; the glasses on no account 
 
THE CARNATIOX. 67 
 
 are to be shut down close till they are dry, or they 
 will inevitably fog, rot, and perish. The best glasses 
 for piping are those made of the common window- 
 glass, eight inches square and six inches deep, and 
 the less air they contain, the sooner will the cuttings 
 strike root. The striking-glasses in common use, 
 which are blown for the purpose, too often contain 
 such a thick body of glass, as to concentrate the sun's 
 rays, and scorch the pipings. They require shading 
 only when the sun is out, and then with a net or old 
 mat, to admit the glimmering of his rays. If the 
 weather continues dry and hot, they will require to 
 be watered occasionally, with a fine rose, early in a 
 morning, over the glasses ; which, for one fortnight 
 at least, need not be removed, if they are doing well. 
 After, you may take them off from time to time as 
 you see occasion, for half an hour or so in a morning, 
 or evening, to dry the glasses ; and, if any of the 
 pipings appear mildewed or rotten, pull them up. 
 At the end of six weeks they will be sufficiently 
 rooted to be transplanted into small pots, or a pre- 
 pared bed, over which it would be advisable to place 
 
00 THE CARNATION. 
 
 a frame and lights for a week or ten days, till they 
 take root again. There they may be allowed to re- 
 main till the middle or so of September. 
 
 In taking them up, if you find any of them not 
 rooted, but sound, and their ends hard and callow, 
 do not let them remain on the same spot, but remove 
 them to another bed, with a little temporary heat, 
 and cover them with glasses as before ; this will not 
 fail to start them, and hasten their fibring. 
 
 If this method be adopted and pursued through all 
 the minuteness of detail with which I have endea- 
 voured to lay it down, I am confident it will succeed. 
 
 OF LAYING. 
 
 ABOUT the 21st of July your flowers will be suffi- 
 ciently expanded to show which are in colour, and 
 which not. I would then have you to prepare for 
 laying, and to continue it as opportunity serves, till 
 the whole be completed. They may be done with 
 safety any time between the 21st of July and the 
 
THE CARNATION. 69 
 
 21st of August : but as some are more difficult and 
 slower in striking root than others, I advise you to 
 begin with them. I here present you with the names 
 of a few that I have found some difficulty with ; viz. 
 
 Davey's Sovereign, 
 
 Davey's Duchess of Devonshire, 
 
 Hoyle's Magnificent, 
 
 Lacey's Marquis of Wellesley, 
 
 Lee's Apollo, 
 
 Crump's Lord Rodney, 
 
 Lacey's Lady Wellington, 
 
 Wood's Comet, 
 
 Harley's Wonderful, 
 
 Sharpe's Defiance, 
 
 Turner's Alexander, 
 
 Turner's Hannibal. 
 
 The plants should receive a good watering the 
 day previous to laying, because they can receive it 
 only, for some time after, through the fine rose of 
 the water-pot, on account of the layers. 
 
 The first step is to trim them, by cutting off with 
 a pair of sharp scissors the leaves next the root, and 
 about an inch in length of those at the end, moving 
 at the same time the surface-mould in the pots, and 
 
70 THE CARNATION. 
 
 adding to it about half an inch in thickness of your 
 finely-sifted compost,, as directed under the head of 
 piping. 
 
 They will then be ready for the incision,, which 
 must be made with a sharp knife longitudinally, on 
 the under side, a little below the second or third 
 joint from the top : the knife must pass completely 
 through the joint, and extend a quarter of an inch 
 beyond it, forming altogether an incision of nearly 
 an inch long, and dividing the stem of the layer 
 in half lengthwise, as far as it goes. 
 
 The nib, or extreme end of the tongue, as it is 
 called, must be carefully cut off, immediately below 
 the joint ; if left on, it is apt to decay, and prevent 
 the end from becoming callow, which process must 
 take place before the layer can form, or throw out 
 any fibres. The tongue must be fixed downwards 
 in the mould, and secured in that position, with a 
 fern or wooden peg made for the purpose, and the 
 joint where the cut took place covered about three- 
 quarters of an inch deep with the fine mould. 
 Should the part that is pegged down be washed bare 
 
THE CARNATION. 71 
 
 at any time by watering, it must be again covered 
 with a little more mould. 
 
 If the weather prove in any degree favourable^ 
 they will be fit to take off in seven or eight weeks; 
 when they may be planted, two or three in an up- 
 right 48 pot, or two in a 60, according to their size. 
 Let them be set upon tiles, slates, or boards, to pre- 
 vent the worms getting into the pots, in which situa- 
 tion they may be suffered to remain till the middle 
 or end of October, according to the state of the 
 weather, which is about the usual period of putting 
 them in their winter quarters, where they are to 
 remain till spring. As soon as the layers are rooted 
 and fit to take off, they should be potted, to enable 
 the fibres to get established before the cold weather 
 sets in ; the removal, if possible, should not be de- 
 ferred later than Michaelmas. 
 
 Observe not to plant the layers too deep or low 
 down in the pots, for whatever part of the side foliage 
 is buried or covered will decay and rot, to the no 
 small injury of the whole. 
 
72 THE CARNATION. 
 
 WINTER SITUATION. 
 
 IT may, perhaps, be considered not improper to give 
 a few cautionary hints respecting their treatment 
 during their inactive state in the winter. 
 
 It is usual to put about four inches deep of coal- 
 ashes at the bottom of the frames, for the pots to 
 stand upon ; this keeps out the worms, and at the 
 same time protects the fibres during very severe 
 weather : they should be placed also pretty near the 
 glass. Let them have all the benefit of the air you 
 can, by drawing the lights quite off in dry weather, 
 and by giving air behind in wet. In frosty weather, 
 which is not very severe, they should be exposed to 
 the air, especially a few hours in the middle of the 
 day. 
 
 It is also an excellent plan to rest the frames upon 
 bricks, to let in a free circulation of air below, among 
 the pots; the frames in some seasons may remain 
 raised in this manner even till Christmas : for it is 
 quite time enough to remove the bricks, and let the 
 
THE CARNATION. 73 
 
 frames down close to the ground, when the frost 
 appears to set in. 
 
 The safest method, perhaps, is to keep them 
 moderately dry in the months of December and 
 January ; and when they require water, give it them 
 through the narrow pipe of a small water-pot, in- 
 stead of the rose. If watered with the rose, unless 
 there be a brisk air and a little sun to dry the plants, 
 the drops will hang upon them for several days to- 
 gether, and spot and mildew the leaves ; indeed it is 
 never right to shut them down close when wet. 
 About once in six weeks, as you see occasion, take a 
 small pointed stick, and lightly stir the mould on 
 the surface, to prevent any green and sour incrusta- 
 tion taking place. Many cover the tops of the pots 
 with a little fine sand. The decayed leaves should 
 also be taken off from time to time. Should the 
 w r eather be temperate and mild, with any gentle 
 rains from the south or south-west, they should be 
 permitted to receive the benefit of them for half an 
 hour or so, five or six times during the winter ; this 
 will greatly refresh them, taking care to have their 
 
 E 
 
74 
 
 THE CARNATION. 
 
 leaves dried again as soon as you can. If kept too 
 dry any length of time together, I have observed 
 that the stem loses its pith, and becomes like a dry 
 hollow reed: steer between the two extremes, and 
 you will do right. 
 
 ON SEED AND SEEDLINGS. 
 
 I HAVE already transgressed the limits which I had 
 prescribed to myself in setting out ; I will therefore 
 close the subject with a few cursory remarks on 
 Seed and Seedlings. 
 
 The Carnation is not a prolific seed-bearer: it 
 often happens, that out of two hundred blooming 
 plants, you will not be able to get even two pods of 
 perfect seed. The reason may be accounted for in 
 this way : first, because it is a flower that blows late 
 in the summer, and has not time always to ripen its 
 seed, especially in a wet one ; secondly, because the 
 Carnations that are usually cultivated are so very 
 double, as to preclude in a great measure the ex* 
 
THE CARNATION. 75 
 
 pectancy of much seed ; it is the semi-double flowers 
 that yield the most. In the year 1818, more seed, 
 I believe, was saved that summer than in any seven 
 preceding put together ; it was excessively hot, and 
 the heat continued till the autumn. There is hardly 
 a Carnation-grower in the country that has not 
 raised seedling-plants from seed saved that summer ; 
 but as it is two years before they bloom, he will have 
 to wait till the ensuing summer before he can have 
 an opportunity of ascertaining their worth. 
 
 The Carnation is a variable flower, and the incon- 
 stancy of its seed is equal only to the variety pro- 
 duced from it. It is said, but I know not with what 
 truth, that seed out of the same pod will produce 
 flowers of all the different varieties flakes, bizarres, 
 &c., both single, semi-double, and double. Several 
 superior flowers have been produced from seed saved 
 from Gregory's King Alfred, Lacey's Marquis of 
 Wellesley, Crump's Lord Rodney, Butts 's Lord 
 Rodney, Stoniard's Britannia, Bearliss's Sir G. 
 Osborn, Onion's Trafalgar, &c. 
 
 If you perceive the pericarpium or seed vessel to 
 
 E 2 
 
76 THE CARNATION. 
 
 swell and grow hard, so as to give hopes of seed, 
 which it will not do till the flower is fading, and the 
 leaves of it withering, then pluck the petals one by 
 one out of the corolla or cup, taking great care not 
 to injure the styles, or two horns, which if you do, 
 all chance of seed is lost. By letting the flower- 
 leaves remain in the cup, they are apt to hold the 
 dew and wet, which frequently occasions the whole 
 to rot. As the seed vessel fills up, you may with a 
 pair of scissors cut off the ends of the cup all round, 
 and make a slight incision down it, to keep the wet 
 from resting in it. It will ripen towards the end of 
 September ; but do not gather it till it is fully ripe, 
 when it will be of a dark brown or black colour. It 
 is the safest way to let it remain in the seed-pod, in 
 some dry place, till after Christmas, when it may be 
 cleaned, and put into a paper bag, or small bottle. 
 
 It may be sown in wide pans, or 24-sized pots, 
 about the second week in April, which is quite early 
 enough, and covered a quarter of an inch thick with 
 fine mould, the surface to be made smooth and level, 
 both before and after sowing. Hand-glasses may be 
 
THE CARNATION. 77 
 
 placed over them till it comes up, which will also 
 prevent the heavy rains from washing it out of the 
 ground. If the plants are in too forward a state, 
 and their growth too much accelerated by watering 
 during the summer, they are apt to spindle, that is, 
 every shoot nearly will run up to flower, scarcely 
 leaving one to propagate from. 
 
 I do not wish to discourage the young florist in 
 his attempts to raise Seedling Carnations ; but 
 he will find the production cf fine flowers to be a 
 work of time, patience, and uncertainty. If I set 
 a ratio as one to one hundred, I fear the calculation 
 will be too extravagant, and that I shall not be 
 borne out in it by the fact ; but let him look upon 
 the whole as a lottery, and if fortune favours him, 
 he may perhaps win two capital prizes, or more. 
 The production of one superior flower it is folly 
 to keep an inferior one in the present highly im- 
 proved breed of Carnations will no doubt afford 
 him much pleasure and gratification ; but if he 
 should be fortunate enough to raise six during the 
 whole course of his life, he must consider his labours 
 
78 THE CARNATION. 
 
 to have been crowned with success ; and as vanity 
 and self-conceit,, which spring from ignorance, are 
 apt to blind and mislead the judgment in all matters 
 that concern ourselves, I caution the florist who has 
 raised any Seedling Carnations, not to be too hasty 
 in pronouncing upon their excellence, but submit 
 them to the inspection and criticism of another as 
 well as himself, lest while he fancies he is breeding 
 up a swan, it should prove at last to be nothing but 
 a goose. A bad florist is nearly in the same situa- 
 
 9 
 
 tion as a bad poet, he becomes the butt of ridicule, 
 and his productions the subject of derision and 
 contempt. 
 
 THE PICOTEE, AND THE REASON OF ITS PARTIAL 
 EXCLUSION FROM THE STAGE. 
 
 ONE thing respecting Seedlings had nearly escaped 
 my recollection, which is this: Most florists, whose 
 views are principally directed to the raising of fine 
 flowers from seed, exclude the Picotee, with its 
 
THE CARNATION. 79 
 
 spotted leaves and indented edges, from the society 
 of the Carnation altogether, lest the farina or pollen 
 of the Picotee should become impregnated with that 
 of the Carnation, and so spoil its breed. This opi- 
 nion seems generally to prevail, and I am not pre- 
 pared with any argument that can counteract it. 
 
 For my part, however, no such consideration shall 
 ever induce me to exclude from the garden, or to 
 forego the pleasure of beholding, the varied, the 
 fanciful, and beautiful blossom of the Picote'e, which 
 presents itself in all the delicate and softer tints of 
 the Carnation, not indeed disposed with that precise- 
 ness and regularity, but pencilled and marked by the 
 inimitable hand of Nature in her more sportive 
 mood : at one time, on a snow-white ground, a vast 
 profusion of small, irregular spots appear red, 
 black, or purple ; at another, a few straight lines or 
 dashes of the pencil only are seen on some of the 
 larger petals; then a fanciful mixture of both to- 
 gether, most beautifully blended ; at another time, 
 the edges or extremity only of the flower-leaves shall 
 be tinged and laced all round, or the whole covered 
 
80 THE CARNATION. 
 
 with a netted and motley mixture of shining co- 
 lours. 
 
 I have often remarked the preference given to 
 Picotees by most ladies : after being tired with 
 gazing at the gaudy and more dazzling beauties of 
 the Carnation, they have turned, with apparently 
 greater satisfaction, to examine and admire the soft 
 and delicate graces of their favourite Picotee. 
 
 ON THE PLAGIARISM, &c. OF FLORISTS. 
 
 THERE is another topic connected with the present 
 subject which in a manner forces itself upon me, 
 yet it is with some degree of reluctance that I enter 
 upon it. 
 
 The florists, no doubt, are a race of men subject 
 to the same passions as other men are ; and these 
 passions, even in the florist, if they are suffered, like 
 weeds, to run riot, and are not properly pruned and 
 restrained, will sometimes prompt him to commit 
 actions, which are not strictly compatible with the 
 innocent and pleasing avocation which he pursues. 
 
THE CARNATION. 81 
 
 Gentle reader, be not alarmed ; I am not going 
 to charge him with the dreadful crimes of murder 
 or manslaughter, notwithstanding the deep scarlet 
 and crimson hues with which those flowers are 
 stained that he often holds in his hands. No ; I 
 charge him only, as a lawyer might express it, if he 
 belonged to that learned body, with certain malprac- 
 tices in his profession, which I think it my duty to 
 mention, that they may be exposed, and the authors 
 of them, when detected, held up to ridicule and con- 
 tempt. 
 
 What I mean by all this preamble is neither more 
 nor less than this that a florist will sometimes, 
 either with a view to raise his reputation, or from 
 the more sordid motive of gain, procure from some 
 distant part of the country the favourite and admired 
 flower of another, under its true name ; he will then 
 christen it afresh, and palm it upon the public as a 
 seedling Carnation of his own. 
 
 He will not unfrequently also substitute, in the 
 way of trade, one flower for another, seldom a better 
 for a worse, to the great disappointment and vexation 
 
 E 5 
 
82 THE CARNATION. 
 
 of the person so receiving it. This is the reason why 
 we so often find the same flower under different 
 names, of whieh I could point out instances not a 
 few. Thus we have two Rainbows, as two may some- 
 times be seen in the heavens at the same time ; but 
 then the one is only the faint shadow and reflection 
 of the other. So we have two James's Lord Craven, 
 two Castle's Mrs. Harrington, two Sharpe's Defi- 
 ance, two or three Weltje's Pellew, two or three 
 Young's Mount ./Etna, &c. &c. 
 
 But, what is worse than all, it is also said that he 
 will sometimes not hesitate to sell and deliver a run 
 flower, instead of one in colour, knowing it to be so. 
 Such unfair practices as these must, however, in the 
 end, defeat themselves ; and let us hope that they 
 are confined but to a few, and do not apply to the 
 body of florists in general. 
 
THE CARNATION. 83 
 
 A STAGE OF CARNATIONS. 
 
 A STAGE of Carnations is a splendid and beautiful 
 sight, of which no one can form any just idea, 
 unless he has had the opportunity of beholding two 
 or three hundred blossoms at one time. 
 
 Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough, was extremely 
 partial to Carnations, and had every year about two 
 hundred pots of them : she was frequently heard to 
 say, that nothing gave her so much pleasure as the 
 sight of her Carnations in full bloom, and which she 
 preferred to all the green-house plants in her pos- 
 session. 
 
 Sir John Hill, also, in some of his works, speaks 
 in praise of the Carnation, whose fragrance, he says, 
 led him to enjoy it frequently. There is not the 
 least doubt but that it has been the distinguished 
 favourite of thousands, in all ages and in all coun- 
 tries, wherever it could be met with, from the earliest 
 times down to the present ; and a singular predilec- 
 tion in its favour at the present day seems to be 
 
84 
 
 THE CARNATION. 
 
 manifested among all ranks throughout the king- 
 dom, by whom it is equally cherished and cultivated. 
 Hear what that political Proteus, yet clever writer, 
 Mr. Cobbett, says of a Carnation, to which he attri- 
 butes beauty and fragrance in the highest degree. 
 ' Some persons may think that flowers are things of 
 ( no use that they are nonsensical things ; the same 
 
 * may be, and perhaps with more reason, said of 
 ' pictures. An Italian, while he gives his fortune 
 ' for a picture, will laugh to scorn a Hollander, who 
 
 * leaves a tulip-root as a fortune to his son. For my 
 ' part, as a thing to keep, and not to sell, as a thing, 
 
 * the possession of which is to give me pleasure, I 
 ' hesitate not a moment to prefer the plant of a fine 
 ' Carnation to a gold watch set with diamonds.' 
 And he continues, f Those who have once seen a 
 ' bed of beautiful Tulips, Carnations, or Auriculas, 
 ' enjoy during life the delightful sight in recollection.' 
 
 The effect produced by a number of Carnations 
 together is undoubtedly striking ; and it is beauty in 
 masses only that can produce such an effect. 
 
 The Clove Gilliflower, or the true Old Clove, a& 
 
THE CARNATION. 85 
 
 it is called, and of which we hear so much mention 
 made, if we may credit the testimony of very old 
 gardeners, is now lost to the country. One flower, 
 they will tell you, would scent the whole garden, the 
 perfume was so strong and powerful. It may be so; 
 I have not the means of contradicting it. 
 
 THE DUTCH MODE OF GARDENING. 
 
 WE are apt to ridicule the Dutchman, as well as the 
 imitators of him here at home, who divide their gar- 
 dens into small beds, or compartments, planting each 
 with separate and distinct flowers. We ridicule the 
 plan, because it exhibits too great a sameness and 
 formality j like unto the nosegay that is composed 
 of one sort of flowers only, however sweet and beau- 
 tiful they may be, they lose the power to please, 
 because they want variety. It must undoubtedly be 
 acknowledged, that a parterre, no matter in what 
 form whether circular or square, elliptical or oblong 
 
86 THE CARNATION. 
 
 where all the shrubs, plants, and flowers in it, like 
 the flowers of a tastefully-arranged bouquet, are va- 
 riously disposed in neat and regular order, according 
 to their height and colour, is a delightful spectacle, 
 and worthy of general imitation. Yet still in some 
 particular cases I am disposed to copy the Dutch- 
 man, and I would have my bed of Hyacinths dis- 
 tinct, my Tulips distinct, my Anemonies, my Ra- 
 nunculuses, my Pinks, my Carnations distinct, and 
 even my beds of Double Blue Violets and Dwarf 
 Larkspurs distinct, to say nothing of hedge-rows of 
 different sorts of Roses : independent of the less 
 trouble you have in cultivating them when kept se- 
 parate, you have, as I said before, beauty in masses, 
 and you have likewise their fragrance and perfume 
 so concentrated, that they are not lost in air, but 
 powerfully inhaled when you approach them. 
 
 In support of the above argument, I beg to quote 
 an authority of no small consideration. 
 
 Mrs. Siddons, the celebrated tragic actress, was a 
 great admirer of this mode of planting, and fond of 
 contemplating this ' beauty in masses.' She adopted 
 
THE CARNATION. 87 
 
 this style of gardening at her late residence on the 
 Harrow-road. One favourite flower with her was 
 the Viola Amcena, the Pansy*, or Common Purple 
 Heart's-ease, and this she set with unsparing pro- 
 fusion all around her garden. Her great and con- 
 stant call for this flower every spring, to keep the 
 purple bordering complete and perfect, induced the 
 gardeners in the neighbourhood to give the name of 
 Miss Heart's-ease to her managing handmaid, who 
 used to chaffer for it in the true spirit of hard and 
 thrifty dealing. Her garden was remarkable in an- 
 other respect, and might with great propriety be 
 styled a garden of evergreens, which, together with 
 a few deciduous shrubs, were of the most sombre, 
 sable, and tragical cast such as Box- trees, Fir, 
 Privet, Phillyrea, Arbor Vitse, Holly, Cypress, the 
 Red Cedar, Laurel, Irish Ivy, Bay-tree, Arbutus 
 Daphne, or Spurge Laurel, Cneorum Tricoccum, or 
 the c Widow- Wail,' the branches and flowers of 
 
 * Pansy, Panacea, derived from the Greek, signifying Heal-all. 
 
THE CARNATION. 
 
 which, according to Pliny, were carried by the Ro- 
 man matrons in their funeral processions : 
 ' Purpureos spargam flores.' VIRGIL. 
 
 The only part of the year in which it could be 
 viewed with any degree of satisfaction was the winter, 
 as giving rise to a pleasing association of ideas, in 
 beholding these retain their green verdure and cloth- 
 ing at a time when the rest of the surrounding trees 
 were stripped naked and bare. 
 
 In addition to what I have already stated, I can- 
 not help making mention of a large bed of Holly- 
 hocks (the Alcea Rosea, a native of China), which I 
 noticed some few years ago in the gardens of Messrs. 
 Lee and Kennedy, of Hammersmith. I think I 
 counted in the bed fourteen distinct varieties of this 
 beautiful species, of tall and short growth; the flowers 
 were all double, and the effect produced by them was 
 grand beyond description. 
 
 The immense number of rose-shaped blossoms, 
 and the strong contrast of their shades and colours 
 white, yellow, red, crimson, brown, black, &c., ar- 
 
THE CARNATION. 89 
 
 rested my attention ; I thought this group of flowers 
 at the time one of the finest and most magnificent 
 sights I had ever witnessed. 
 
 CARNATION BED. 
 
 FLORISTS in general have a greater stock of Carna- 
 tions than they find convenient to blow in pots, and 
 these they plant out in the ground towards the latter 
 end of March. There is no doubt but that they 
 might do equally as well, if they were planted in the 
 open ground about the beginning of October, and 
 would stand through the winter unhurt, provided a 
 slight protection could be afforded them by mats, or 
 a piece of sail-cloth thrown over them, resting on 
 hoops, during continued rains, heavy falls of snow, 
 or other severe weather; but they who have the 
 means of wintering them in frames seldom run that 
 
 o 
 
 risk, and prefer planting them out in the spring. 
 The pains which they bestow in preparing and 
 
90 
 
 THE CARNATION. 
 
 making the bed for them, depend in a great measure 
 on the value they set on the plants ; if they are some 
 of their choice sorts, and they are anxious to have 
 fine blooms,, they will form a fresh bed altogether. 
 In this case, they first remove a foot in depth of the 
 old earth, and then dig over what remains to the 
 depth of a foot more, provided there be that depth 
 before they come to the subsoil ; they will then cover 
 the surface with a stratum of rotten horse-dung, three 
 inches deep, not too much exhausted that which 
 comes directly from the cucumber-bed is to be pre- 
 ferred ; they will then replace the mould which they 
 removed in the first instance, with the same sort qf 
 compost as is intended for the Carnations in pots, 
 raising the bed about four inches above the surface 
 of the ground, and rounding the top a little in a 
 convex form, just enough to give the water a gentle 
 descent each way. If the bed is four feet wide, it 
 will contain four rows, if the plants are set singly, 
 but only three if set in pairs, as turned out of the 
 pots, allowing sufficient room for laying. 
 
 I need scarcely repeat here that they will require 
 
THE CARNATION. 
 
 91 
 
 a plentiful supply of water, as they come into flower, 
 to swell the pod, and to increase the blossom. 
 
 The following Catalogue of Carnations and Pico- 
 tees comprehends the greatest part of the choicest 
 flowers in England. 
 
 CARNATIONS. 
 
 SCARLET BIZARUES. 
 
 Astin's Lord Exmouth 
 Bray's Defiance 
 Broadbent's Victorious 
 Brown's Lord Hood 
 
 Lord Nelson 
 
 Barefield's Lord Nelson 
 Bigg's Don Cossack 
 
 Defiance 
 
 Bate's Regent 
 Nelson 
 
 Brady's Bravo 
 Barker's Sovereign 
 Cartwriglit's Abercrombie 
 Clarke's Regent 
 Costin's Monarch 
 
 Craddock's Sir SidneySmith 
 Crump's Lord Rodney 
 Colcutt's Emperor 
 Cook's Wellington 
 Davey's Caesar Augustus 
 . Sovereign 
 
 Honourable Thos. 
 
 Brand 
 
 Gabell's Hero 
 Hall's Champion 
 Hoyle's General Washing- 
 ton 
 
 Barley's Waterloo 
 Generalissimo 
 Earl of Oxford 
 
92 
 
 THE CARNATION. 
 
 Humphrey's Duke of Cla- 
 rence 
 
 Handy's Regent 
 Hine's Duke of Wellington 
 
 Lord Exmouth 
 
 Hogg's Lord Sydney 
 
 Duke of Montrose 
 
 Epaminondas 
 
 Houghton's Duke of New- 
 castle 
 
 James's Lord Craven 
 Lee's British Beauty 
 
 Lord Byron 
 
 Emperor Alexander 
 
 Leigh's Wellington 
 Lisset's Seedling 
 Mason's Sovereign 
 
 Lord Compton 
 
 Martin's Matchless 
 
 Macbeth 
 
 Notcutt's Lord Mansfield 
 
 Lord St. Vincent 
 
 Onion's Hero of Trafalgar 
 Plummer's Lord Manners 
 Pope's Lord Hood 
 Pearson's Chiiwell Hero 
 Blucher 
 
 ' - Lord Bagot 
 
 Reynold's King 
 Smalley's Foxhunter 
 Sharpe's Defiance 
 Smedmore's Regent 
 Snook's Charles Fox 
 
 Paragon 
 
 Defiance 
 
 John Bull 
 
 Strong's Victorious 
 Smith's Emperor 
 Stourb ridge Regulator 
 Tallis's Prince William 
 
 Henry 
 Turner's Alexander 
 
 Blucher 
 
 Sir Francis Burdett 
 
 Taylor's Lord Nelson 
 Waterhouse's Rising Sun 
 Weltje's Buonaparte 
 
 Sir Edward Pellew 
 
 No. 23 
 
 Sir Sidney Smith 
 
 Walker's Defiance 
 
 Hero 
 
 Monarch 
 
 Pageant 
 
 Webb'sDuke of Wellington 
 Wurman's Captain Wise 
 
THE CARNATION. 
 
 93 
 
 Wood's Lord Nelson 
 Waters' Prince of Wales 
 Young's Mount ytna 
 
 Young's British Hero . 
 Yeomanson's Eclipse 
 Triumphant 
 
 CRIMSON BIZARRES. 
 
 Astin's Marquis of Anglesea 
 Bate's Magnificent 
 Bugbird's Sir F. Burdett 
 Bond's Agenora 
 Brown's Defiance 
 
 Lord Nelson 
 
 Barker's Sir Robert Wilson 
 Brook's Adonis 
 Bailey's Wellington 
 Berriman's Jubilee 
 Cartwright's Rainbow 
 
 Crook's Marquis 
 Chaplin's Admiral Duncan 
 Cope's Suwarrow 
 Christian's Superb 
 Davey's King David 
 
 Rainbow 
 
 Fletcher's Staffordshire 
 
 Hero 
 
 Gregory's King Alfred 
 Patriot 
 
 Gabell's Esquire Garle 
 Hopkin's King Solomon 
 Horrock's Collingwood 
 
 Prince Leopold 
 
 Hoyle's Magnificent 
 Howarth's Grenadier 
 Harley's Diana 
 Lord Lough - 
 
 borough 
 
 Cockade 
 
 Hogg's Hamlet 
 
 Adventurer 
 
 John Goldham, 
 
 Esq. 
 
 King George IV. 
 
 Lacey's Marquis of Wel- 
 
 lesley 
 
 Lacy's Waterloo 
 Lee's Duke of Bridgewater 
 
 Apollo 
 
 Duke of Kent 
 
 King George 
 
94 
 
 THE CARNATION. 
 
 Martin's King Arthur 
 
 Earl Grey 
 
 ' Duke of Grafton 
 
 Marquis of Bath 
 
 Glory, four distinct 
 
 colours 
 
 British Farmer 
 
 Lord Erskine 
 
 Dundee Beauty 
 
 Miller's Champion 
 
 Joe Miller 
 
 St. George 
 
 Phillip's Lord Harrington 
 Pearson's Lord Middleton 
 
 Superb 
 
 , No. 3 
 
 Quarterman's Oxford Hero 
 
 Steed's Yorkshire Hero 
 Snook's Emperor 
 Smedmore's Lord Nelson 
 Stretch's King 
 Toule's Sir John Leicester 
 Terry's King 
 Troup's Beauty 
 Tate's Waterloo 
 
 Yorkshire Lad 
 
 Walker's Marquis 
 
 Baron 
 
 Wallace's Sir Wm. Wallace 
 Yeomanson's Coburg 
 
 Magnificent 
 
 General Pic- 
 
 ton 
 
 Lord Hill 
 
 PURPLE BIZARRES. 
 
 Hine's British Farmer j Hogg's Sir Joseph Banks 
 
 PINK AND PURPLE BIZARRES. 
 
 Astin's Victory 
 Bowstead's Queen 
 
 Hero 
 
 Bate's Duchess of York 
 
 Bearless's Sir Geo. Osborne 
 Church's Seedling 
 Davey's Duchess of Devon- 
 shire 
 
THE CARNATION. 
 
 95 
 
 Davey's Lady Grey 
 Davis's Regent 
 French's Duke of Kent 
 Fryer's King 
 Gill's Bristol Hero 
 Harcourt's Prince of Wales 
 Hogg's Dulce Decus 
 Kenny's Patriot 
 Mason's Seedling 
 Pephall's Oldenburgh 
 Pearson's Eminent 
 
 Troup's Hero 
 
 Duke of Gloucester 
 
 , Duke of Welling- 
 ton 
 
 Tucker's Duchess of De- 
 vonshire 
 
 Weltje's Maid of Honour 
 
 Walker's Buckingham 
 
 Pilgrim 
 
 Wallace's Lady Duncan 
 
 SCARLET FLAKES. 
 
 Astin's Seedling 
 Brook's Colonel Tarleton 
 Belcher's Lady Spenser 
 Barker's Mrs. Clarke 
 Barr's Waterloo 
 Barnes's Lord Nelson 
 Cart Wright's Commander 
 
 Pirate 
 
 Davis's Sir William Curtis 
 Eagleton's Marquis of Ta- 
 
 vistock 
 
 Fulbrook's Lord Nelson 
 Harley's Enchanter 
 Regent 
 
 Harley's Wonderful 
 Hogg's Sirius 
 
 Mount Hecla 
 
 Hill's Marquis of Anglesea 
 Incomparable Dutch Flake 
 James's Prince of Wales 
 Lee's Queen 
 Lyford's Regent 
 Lacey's Queen 
 
 Lady Wellington 
 
 Mason's Duke of Welling- 
 ton 
 
 Duke of Devon- 
 shire 
 
96 
 
 THE CARNATION. 
 
 Martin's Morning Star 
 
 Earl of Leven 
 
 Page's Queen Caroline 
 Pearson's Juno 
 
 Rising Sun 
 
 Snook's No. 12 
 
 Lord John Russell 
 
 Strong's Lady Romilly 
 Stoinard's Britannia 
 Thornicroft's Blucher 
 
 Britannia 
 
 Superb 
 
 Brilliant 
 
 Victory 
 
 Venus 
 
 Tagg's Glory of Oxford 
 
 Walker's Emerald 
 
 Ruby 
 
 Wood's Comet 
 
 Wilson's Lord Nelson 
 
 Winter's Berkshire Fla- 
 mingo 
 
 Waterhouse's Queen Caro- 
 line 
 
 Duke of Nor- 
 
 folk 
 
 Earl Fitzwil- 
 
 liam 
 
 Yeomanson's Blucher 
 Commander 
 
 PURPLE FLAKES. 
 
 Adw in's Princess Royal ' 
 Barker's Top Sawyer 
 Butt's Lord Rodney 
 Brown's British Beauty 
 Bates' Wellington 
 Boyle's Lord Ashbrook 
 Cartwright's Seedling 
 Castle's Mrs. Barring-ton 
 Cornfield's Sir George Ro- 
 binson 
 
 Crook's Royal Purple 
 Cope's Miss Plato ff 
 Dickson's Mary Queen of 
 Scots 
 
 Fame 
 
 Fulbrook's Grenadier 
 Gardiner's Trimmer 
 Houghton's Miss Saville 
 Hoyle and Boad's Queen 
 Hardman's Lord Exmouth 
 
THE CARNATION. 
 
 97 
 
 Honey's Princess Charlotte 
 Hogg's Mrs. Siddons 
 
 Pilot 
 
 Harley's Smuggler 
 James's Queen 
 Lester's Purple Flake 
 Page's Seedling 
 Porter's Queen 
 Palmer's Defiance 
 
 Duchess of Dorset 
 
 Patson's Marlborough 
 Phillip's Defiance 
 
 Britannia 
 
 Redfern's Derby Hero 
 Stable's Queen 
 
 Strong's Eliza 
 Turner's Hannibal 
 Taylor's Waterloo 
 Williams's Duchess of York 
 Walker's British Beauty 
 
 Columbine 
 
 Wright's Duchess of Man- 
 chester 
 Wood's Ambassador 
 
 Aid-de-camp 
 
 Princess Charlotte 
 
 Commander 
 
 Waterhouse'slncomparable 
 Wilde's Mary Ann 
 
 ROSE AND PINK FLAKES. 
 
 Astiu's Lady Faget 
 Barr's Rose Flake 
 Brook's Rosy Bacchus 
 Crooke's Duchess of Wel- 
 lington 
 
 Lady Mildmay 
 
 Roi des Roses 
 
 Cartvvri ght's Rosa 
 
 Juliet 
 
 Davey's Lady Shannon 
 
 Davey's Tower of Babel 
 Davis's Princess Charlotte 
 
 Princess of Wales 
 
 Duchess of York 
 
 Fletcher's Duchess of De- 
 vonshire 
 
 Gab ell's Islington Beauty 
 Harley's Mrs. Clarke 
 Hine's Queen 
 Hogg's Paddington Beauty 
 
98 
 
 THE CARNATION. 
 
 Hogg's Queen 
 
 Miss Cockerill 
 
 Lady Burgoyne 
 
 Galatea 
 Hoyle's Beauty 
 Honey's General Elliot 
 Lacey's Princess of Wales 
 
 Marchioness of 
 
 Wellesley 
 
 Metcalf s Miss Saunders 
 Martin's Lady Exmouth 
 Meesom's Invincible 
 Mason's Queen Caroline 
 Duchess of Glou- 
 cester 
 Martin's Isabella Martin 
 
 Lady Grey 
 
 Newland's Beauty 
 Plummer's Lord Keith 
 
 Pearson's Lady Loudon 
 Piannon's Lord Norris 
 Rivers' Incomparable 
 Snook's Queen Caroline 
 Smedmore's Duchess of 
 
 Devonshire 
 Lady Derby 
 
 Tate's Jubilee 
 
 Taylor's Staffordshire Lass 
 
 Thornicroft's Lady North- 
 ampton 
 
 Walker's Fairy Queen 
 
 Rosamond 
 
 Warman's Miss Ormond 
 
 W T ild's Cottage Girl 
 
 Wood's Aurora 
 
 Yeomanson's Duchess of 
 Rutland 
 
 Helen 
 
 FRENCH CARNATIONS. 
 
 Due d'Angoulme 
 Flora 
 
 | Violet de Metz 
 I Henri de Prusse 
 &c. &c. 
 
THE CARNATION. 
 
 99 
 
 Additional Catalogue of some few new varieties of 
 Carnations, which may justly be classed among the 
 first-rate flowers. 
 
 SCARLET BIZARRES. 
 
 Finmore's Rising Sun 
 Hogg's Sheriff Whittaker 
 Hufton's 'Squire Mundy 
 Landon's Falstaff 
 Lee's King Alfred 
 Mason's Achilles 
 
 Lord Harrington 
 
 Sir George Crewe 
 
 Plant's Sir John Bough ey 
 
 CRIMSON 
 
 Booth's Justice Trafford 
 Franklin's Queen 
 Hattersley's Freedom 
 Hufton's Miss Mundy 
 Ive's Leopold 
 Medwin's Lord Eldon 
 Mason's Favourite 
 
 Pearson's Competitor 
 Pyke's Champion 
 
 Gladiator 
 
 Strong's King 
 
 Duke of York 
 
 Thompson's Ralph Cart- 
 wright, Esq. 
 Roby's Salamander 
 
 BIZARRES. 
 
 Mason's Cam Hobhouse 
 Pittman's Rising Sun 
 Strong's Prince of Den- 
 mark 
 
 Linnaeus 
 
 Thompson's Sir J. Miller 
 Yeomanson's G. Rex IV. 
 
 PURPLE BIZARRES. 
 
 Hines's Duchess of Kent 
 
 Lady Macclesfield 
 
 Strong's Dr. Franklin 
 Pyke's Eminent 
 
 F 2 
 
100 THE CARNATION. 
 
 SCARLET FLAKES, 
 
 Cartwriglit's Duke of Sussex 
 Hufton's Miss Barwell 
 Mason's Eclipse 
 
 Strong's Emperor 
 Thomson's Warrior 
 Wharton's Phoenix 
 
 PURPLE FLAKES. 
 
 Archer's Union 
 Mason's Lady Harrington 
 Fyke's Cato 
 Harley's Commodore 
 
 Strong's Esther 
 The Worcester Violet 
 Timmis's Lord Byron 
 
 ROSE FLAKES. 
 
 Hale's Miss Cox 
 Houghton's Duchess of 
 Newcastle 
 
 Mason's Lady Scarsdale 
 Thomson's Maria 
 
 It gives me pleasure to add my small tribute of 
 praise here in behalf of Finmore's Rising Sun, 
 Mason's Achilles, Strong's Prince of Denmark, and 
 his Esther, Pittman's Rising Sun, Mason's Eclipse, 
 and Whartori's Phoenix. Though this may appear 
 somewhat invidious, where the whole are so fine, yet 
 these last are, in my opinion, most excellent, and not 
 to be surpassed. 
 
THE CARNATION. 101 
 
 BRANCH AND BLOSSOM. 
 
 ' PRAY, Master Blossom, are you not rather lavish 
 of your praise ? What can you know yet of these 
 new flowers ? have you proved them sufficiently, 
 that you speak in such good round set terms of their 
 excellence ? If you wish the world to believe that 
 you possess some little taste and judgment, I advise 
 you to express your sentiments with more caution 
 and reserve, lest they should be called in question 
 hereafter.' 
 
 f Why, Branch, have they not proved themselves 
 already ? But I know your fond partiality to your 
 old favourites, and your great reluctance to admit of 
 any excellence in any of the new ones. There's your 
 favourite Pellew, if you get him good once in seven 
 years it is as much as you do ; as for old Washing- 
 ton, with all his reputation, if the summer proves 
 wet, does he not then come pouncy as brickdust ? 
 See the trouble there is with Clarence, fine as he is, 
 to keep him in health : I may say the same with 
 
102 THE CARNATION. 
 
 respect to Sharpe's Defiance ; and as for Sovereign, 
 he was never half a good one. ' 
 
 ' Bless me, Master Blossom ! do I hear such lan- 
 guage from you ? There's treason and treachery in 
 the very sound of it : I cannot listen with patience ; 
 for have not I heard you praise those old flowers as 
 much as I have ever done ? * 
 
 ' And so you may again; but surely I may have 
 the liberty to express what I think of these new seed- 
 lings, which deservedly claim admiration. What 
 proof can you want ? 
 
 ' Has not this modern Achilles bravely fought his 
 way into notice, and beat his opponents with ease ? 
 Has not Finmore's Rising Sun exalted himself by 
 his splendour and magnitude, and outshone all his 
 competitors ? and has not Pittman's Rising Sun also 
 been the envy and admiration of all that came within 
 the view of his broad illumined disk for three years 
 past ? Has not Strong's Prince of Denmark con- 
 ducted himself like a true and valiant prince, and 
 carried off, more than once, the palm of victory ? 
 and has not his lovely Esther, arrayed in pure white 
 
THE CARNATION. 103 
 
 and shining purple, with her goodly figure and at- 
 tractive graces, won universal admiration ? As for 
 Mason's Eclipse, mind if he does not put the extin- 
 guisher over a good many; and lovely Phoenix, I 
 have no doubt, will prove herself a complete " rara 
 avis" and find admirers in plenty ; to say nothing 
 of Strong's Linnaeus, Pyke's Champion, Thompson's 
 'Squire Cartwright, Hufton's Miss Mundy, Schole's 
 Delight, &c., which are all first-rate flowers.' 
 
 ' Well, well, neighbour Blossom, remember the 
 old saying, "the least said the soonest mended:" it 
 will be well if you are not obliged to retract some 
 part of your opinion in this instance, as you have 
 done in others ; for I have heard you say, that you 
 could not credit the evidence even of your own senses 
 in respect to flowers, they present such different ap- 
 pearances at different seasons, and that you have 
 been sadly deceived thereby.' 
 
 ' Branch, I admit it, and moreover confess, not- 
 withstanding all you can urge, that I would not part 
 with Pittman's Rising Sun, though I could get in its 
 stead the far-famed " Cravo do Duque" of Portugal, 
 
104 THE CARNATION. 
 
 the great favourite of the Cardinal Patriarch a 
 flower worthy, as he says, of being presented to the 
 Queen of Heaven. How many have sought after it 
 in vain, his Eminence having interdicted its going 
 among heretics ! and, what is also equally strange, 
 his gardener having had the virtue to reject the 
 pressing offer of a handful of crusadoes and milreas 
 for it.' 
 
 ' Tis very well that something new turns up every 
 season, to keep the votaries of Flora and her fancy 
 alive. Last year, Cartwright's Rainbow, Houghton's 
 Duchess of Newcastle, Queen Caroline, the Smug- 
 gler, and the Foxhunter took the lead ; this year you 
 have other favourites. May I ask, Mr. Blossom, 
 what price you set on Pittman's flower, which, in 
 your opinion, is so complete an ultra, or, as I would 
 express it, quite an out-and-outer a chef-d'oeuvre 
 of Nature?' 
 
 ( That of a sovereign, at least : know, Branch, 
 that in my impatience to obtain it, I last year offered 
 two for it.' 
 
 * Aye, aye, money and wit seldom go together. 
 
THE CARNATION. 105 
 
 though I have heard it said that it is a general rule 
 in Paddington to measure a man's intellects by the 
 depth and weight of his purse.' 
 
 < Pooh, pooh ! let us close this parley ; for our 
 hearers are, I dare say, pretty well tired.' 
 
 ' With all my heart ; only tell me, Master Blos- 
 som, is it true that a London tradesman has no con- 
 science ? Excuse me, I don't mean a London florist.* 
 
 ' Why, Branch, as for that, a tradesman's con- 
 science, and the consciences of his customers, are too 
 often nearly upon a par : the one thinks he never 
 can charge enough, and the other thinks it never 
 time to pay.' 
 
 PICOTEES. 
 
 MY COLLECTION OF PICOTEES IS UNRIVALLED FOR BEAUTY 
 AND VARIETY. 
 
 Archbishop of York 
 
 of Canterbury 
 
 Brown's Wonderful 
 Bartlett's Beauty 
 Barclay's Lady Dundas 
 
 Baron's Miss Neville 
 Brook's Seedling 
 Bambury's Duchess of 
 
 Beaufort 
 Bailey's Beauty 
 F 5 
 
106 
 
 THE CARNATION. 
 
 Blaize's Blazing Star 
 Cartwright's Circassian 
 
 Douglas's Lady Pierpont 
 
 lotte 
 
 Cornfield's Mr. Ponsonby 
 
 
 .- T.oflv' TYTillrr 
 
 Gloucester 
 Duborg's Elegant 
 Furze's Superb 
 Hall's Morning Star 
 Lady Crewe 
 Hogg's Arab 
 Duke of Sussex 
 Stella 
 
 
 Bath 
 
 
 
 
 
 T idv IVnrtli 
 
 
 ampton 
 
 Great Favourite 
 Emma 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Sophia of Glou- 
 cester 
 Princess Augusta 
 
 
 ford 
 
 Dlll-r nf "Ra/1 f/vrj-1 
 
 Davey's Eclipse 
 True Briton 
 Lady Craven 
 Douglas's Duchess of Kent 
 
 Corinthian 
 
 Belvedere 
 Hufton's Magnum Bonum 
 
THE CARNATION. 
 
 107 
 
 Kenny's Superb 
 
 Queen 
 
 Incomparable 
 
 Lacey's Queen 
 Lawrence's Hampton Beauty 
 Lee's Robin Hood 
 
 Splendid 
 
 Little John 
 
 Colonel Stanton 
 
 Zebra 
 
 Montford's Hero 
 Mason's Wellington 
 
 Black Prince 
 
 Exmouth 
 
 Regent 
 
 Princess Charlotte 
 
 Princess of Wales 
 
 Favourite 
 
 Beauty 
 
 Martin's Hero 
 
 . Ruby 
 
 Waterloo 
 
 Coburg 
 
 . Magnificent 
 
 Miss Bouverie 
 
 Queen 
 
 Martin's Triumphant 
 
 Veteran 
 
 Miller's Perfect Beauty 
 
 True Blue 
 
 True Briton 
 
 Pemberton's Georgina 
 Pearson's Maria 
 
 Chill well Beauty 
 
 Fair Play 
 
 Pyke's Beauty 
 Rouce's Lady Warren 
 Sandael's Litchfield Hero 
 Syrett's Lady Effingham 
 
 Lady Howard 
 
 Princess of Wales 
 
 Mars 
 
 Steed's Artaxerxes 
 Stone's Sparkler 
 
 Brilliant 
 
 General Picton 
 
 Spratt's Lord Effingham 
 Sm alley's Cynthia 
 Woodford's Queen 
 Wollard's Waterloo 
 Yeomanson's Beauty 
 Invincible 
 
OF THE PINK. 
 
 LET your Pink bed be constructed upon the same 
 principle as that for Carnations ; for to give instruc- 
 tions for the growth of one is to give instructions 
 for the growth of the others their nature and habits 
 are alike ; they require the same open situation, and 
 the same richness of soil, and these you must let 
 them have, if you mean to grow them in any per- 
 fection. 
 
 The Pinks must also be shaded when in bloom, if 
 you wish their beauty to continue any length of time 
 untarnished : either rain or sun will alike sully and 
 fade their colour. The pods should be tied round 
 after the manner of Carnations, with a little bass- 
 mat, to prevent their bursting, and their number 
 reduced, to increase the size of those you leave on. 
 
 As the Pink is earlier than the Carnation, of 
 course the time of propagating it will be earlier also,, 
 which is generally performed by pipings or cuttings 
 any time about the 21st of June. 
 
THE PINK. 109 
 
 When the pipings have taken root, they must be 
 pricked out into a kind of nursery-bed, to get strength 
 and grow, till about the middle of September, which 
 is the customary time of planting them out in a bed, 
 where they are to remain to flower. 
 
 It has been very frequently remarked that Pinks 
 moved and transplanted in the spring never do well, 
 nor show half the beauty which those do that were 
 planted in September ; the laced Pinks, in particular, 
 appear almost plain, and without their distinguish- 
 ing character. They should likewise never be suf- 
 fered to remain longer than two years in the same 
 spot and ground, without either change of soil or 
 situation. To say more concerning Pinks I conceive 
 wholly unnecessary ; for if you have attended with 
 any care to the directions given for the management 
 of the Carnations, you will be at no loss how to treat 
 them. 
 
110 
 
 THE PINK. 
 
 OF SEED. 
 
 To save seed from Pinks, you must extract tHe 
 flower-leaves when they begin to wither, and pursue 
 the same plan as is recommended with respect to 
 Carnation seed. 
 
 Davey's Venus and Incomparable, Dakin's Bur- 
 dett, Turner's Regent, and Brown's Beauty, are fine 
 flowers to save seed from. 
 
 To the above short account I beg leave to add a 
 letter on the culture of Pinks, which, in the year 
 1821, I had the honour of addressing to Joseph 
 Sabine, Esq., Secretary to the London Horticultural 
 Society : it was approved by the Council, and or- 
 dered to be printed in their Transactions of that year. 
 
 ' Sir : I feel obliged to you for the favourable 
 
 * opinion you were pleased to express of the few spe- 
 4 cimens of Pink Blooms (for which I received the 
 
 * Banksian medal), which I had the honour to 
 
 * exhibit at a late meeting of the Horticultural So- 
 ' ciety. The health of the plants, and the beauty of 
 
THE PINK. Ill 
 
 f the blossoms, I attribute mainly to the mode of culti- 
 v vation which I pursued with respect to them ; a brief 
 
 * account of which I now subjoin, hoping, though 
 
 * the subject-matter be trifling and unimportant in 
 
 * itself, that it will afford some gratification to those 
 
 * members of the Society who are fond of flowers, 
 
 * and who feel pleasure in the admiration, at least, 
 ' if not in the cultivation of them. 
 
 ( I formed my Pink beds and planted them about 
 ' the middle of October ; they were raised six inches 
 ( above the alleys, to enable the heavy rains to pass 
 ' off during the winter. The soil consisted of a 
 ( sandy loam, or, more correctly speaking, of a com- 
 ' mixture of yellowish loam, common black garden- 
 f mould, road grit taken from the entrance to the 
 
 * Paddington pond, which might not improperly be 
 ' called sand, having been washed by the water ; 
 ' and a good portion of rotten horse-dung, well in- 
 ' corporated, with a good bottom of dung from the 
 c cucumber pits : added to which, I top-dressed the 
 ' beds in the beginning of May, after weeding and 
 4 lightly hoeing the surface, with nearly an inch 
 
112 THE PINK. 
 
 ' thick of rotten dung passed through a coarse sieve, 
 ' in which was a small quantity of one-year old 
 ' sheep-dung, the sweepings of the St. John's Wood 
 ' Lane sheep-pens. 
 
 ( I watered them freely with the pipe of the water- 
 ' pot between the rows, when the pods were swelling 
 ' and showing bloom ; for if the plants lack moisture 
 ' at this stage of their growth, when the weather is 
 ' generally hot and the ground dry, the flowers seem 
 * to languish, and never attain that degree of perfec- 
 ' tion they would do if the beds were kept moist and 
 ' cool. The top-dressing prevents the ground from 
 ' cracking, and the rains and water given from the 
 ' pot passing through it, convey gradually a whole- 
 f some nourishment to the plants. 
 
 ' The effect of careful, over careless cultivation, was 
 ' never perhaps more clearly evinced than in an in- 
 ( stance in my own neighbourhood in this season. 
 ( A friend of mine, who had received from me all the 
 f superior varieties of Pinks, planted them in a bed 
 ' in the common way ; and though they were pretty 
 ' healthy, and sent forth sufficient blooms., they pre- 
 
THE PINK. 113 
 
 ' sented only a sort of uniform sameness, undistin- 
 < guished by that pleasing variety of bright colouring 
 ' and beautiful lacing peculiar to each, which were 
 ' so manifest in mine : a common observer would 
 ' have said that they were Pinks altogether different 
 ' from mine. 
 
 ' Florists contending for a prize, and anxious to 
 { get their flow T ers large, leave three pods only upon 
 ' each stem, and four or five stems to a large plant, 
 ' two or three to a small one, cutting off the rest as 
 ' they spindle up to flower : as soon as the pods are 
 ' full formed they tie a slip of wet bass round them, 
 f to prevent their bursting irregularly, and place a 
 ( glass or other covering over them when in bloom, to 
 c protect them from the sun and rain, thereby pre- 
 ' serving their colours from being soon faded and 
 ' tarnished. 
 
 ( If there has been much frost during the winter, 
 ' and the earth is consequently rendered light and 
 ' loose when it thaws, the roots, by such an extension 
 ( of ground, will sometimes be raised almost out of it: 
 ' in that case it will be necessary, any time about the 
 ' beginning of April, to tread the mould down lightly 
 
114 THE PINK. 
 
 ' with the foot,, or at least to compress it firmly round 
 ( the plants with the hand. 
 
 ' A Pink bed will continue, and flower very well 
 < for two years in succession, though most florists 
 ( renew their plants every year by piping the grass, 
 ' in order to have them young, healthy, and vigorous ; 
 ' and if they are confined to the same plot of ground, 
 ' they take care to add a little fresh loam and rotten 
 
 * dung to it, every time they make up a fresh bed. 
 
 ' In preparing compost for the Dianthus tribe of 
 
 * plants, particularly for those which I flower in pots, 
 'I always bear in mind what Virgil says in his 1 
 
 * second Georgic about soil : 
 
 " Pinguis item quse sit tellus, hoc denique pacto 
 " Discimus ; hand unquara manibus jactata fatiscit 
 " Sed picis in morem ad digitos lentescit habendo.' ' 
 
 ' Columella and Pliny, also, in their works on Agri-' 
 { culture, have given directions for the selection of 
 ( good soil, which cannot be amended at the present' 
 e day. The following are some of the tests whereby 
 
 * they distinguish it: "That it is of a blackish 
 ' colour : glutinous when wet, and easily crumbled 
 
 * when dry; has an agreeable smell; imbibes water, 
 
THE PINK. 115 
 
 retains a proper quantity, and discharges a super- 
 fluity/' &c. Gardeners who cannot meet with such 
 soil ought to use artificial means to form it, by 
 bringing together different kinds: sand and stiff 
 loam being the principal ingredients required., the 
 one for strong soils, the other for light. 
 
 ' Before I use fresh dung loam, I always take the 
 precaution to strew over it a little quick lime, well 
 slacked, and in a hot state, to correct any acidity, or 
 decompose any injurious saline compounds. Lime 
 also is an excellent application for the destruction of 
 slugs, snails, worms, and other injurious insects, as 
 well as for the dissolution of inert vegetable matter. 
 e You will excuse the minute detail, which I have 
 entered into more fully than I intended when I sat 
 down; but as I took the pains to make the experi- 
 ment, I give it you because I have every reason to 
 be satisfied with the success of it. 
 
 < Before I conclude, I beg to call to your recollection 
 ' that I am neither gardener nor florist professionally, 
 ' but that I commenced the cultivation of flowers, in 
 ' the first instance, with a view to amuse a depressed 
 ' state of mind, and reinvigorate a still more sickly 
 
116 THE PINK. 
 
 ' state of body : I therefore solicit your utmost indul- 
 ' gence towards the remarks which I have made on 
 ' the cultivation of that pleasing little flower the Pink. 
 
 ' I am, Sir,, with great respect, 
 
 c Your most obedient, humble Servant, 
 
 THOMAS HOGG. 
 
 < Paddington, July 30, 1821.' 
 
 CATALOGUE OF THE PINKS. 
 
 IN the following catalogue I have taken the liberty 
 to discard the names of many of the old Pinks, and 
 which I mean in future to discard from the garden 
 also, because their places can now be much better 
 supplied with new ones ; and if I have not published 
 a numerous list, let it be remembered that quality, 
 in respect to flowers, is always preferable to quantity 
 
 Archer's Seedling 
 Ambrose's Lady Hill 
 
 King 
 Eclipse 
 
 Austin's Lady Hill 
 
 Fair Ellen 
 
 No. 12. 
 
 Scarlett 
 
THE PINK, 
 
 117 
 
 Baker's King 
 Bennett's Woodstock Hero 
 Bray's Waterloo 
 Bond's Nelson 
 
 - Stranger 
 
 Maid of Kent 
 
 Barnard's Bexley Hero 
 
 Mother Bunch 
 
 Curate 
 
 Miss O'Neil 
 
 Brooks' Superb 
 Barnes' Trafalgar 
 Berkshire Buffalo, or 
 
 Beauty of Ugliness 
 Carpenter's Wellington 
 
 Blucher 
 
 Clay's Lady Nelson 
 Cheese's Miss Cheese 
 
 Champion 
 
 Caroline 
 
 Clarke's Smolensko 
 
 Leopold 
 
 Captain 
 
 Adonis 
 
 Cambray's Gibraltar 
 Colville's Eliza 
 Collin's Cornwallis 
 Corbett's Leopold 
 Chamberlaine's Bensonian 
 
 Chinn's Queen Caroline 
 Curson's Seedling 
 Coulston's Britannia 
 Collier's Kentish Hero 
 Davey's Britannia 
 
 Devonshire 
 
 Daveyana 
 
 Queen 
 
 Lady Shannon 
 
 Venus 
 
 Lady Durham 
 
 Eclipse 
 
 Agrippina 
 
 Lady Albemarle 
 
 Lady Bridgewater 
 
 Standard 
 
 Nonpareil 
 
 Hero 
 
 Incomparable 
 
 Miss Shutz 
 
 Dry's Earl of Uxbridge 
 Dakin's Burdett 
 East's Waterloo 
 
 Eclipse 
 
 Eggleston's Sovereign 
 Ford's King 
 
 Lady Hamilton 
 
 Queen Caroline 
 
 Mountain of Snow 
 
118 
 
 THE PINK. 
 
 Golding's Seedling 
 Green's Princess of Wales 
 Gould's Beauty 
 
 Windsor Hero 
 
 Greenwood's Britannia 
 
 Beauty 
 
 Hopkins's Scarecrow 
 
 Comet 
 
 FarmerPickering 
 
 Blucher 
 
 Ruby 
 
 Harcourt's King George 
 Hine's Queen 
 
 Comet 
 
 Seedling 2 
 
 Hill's King 
 
 Hoare's Maid of Kent 
 
 Haslam's Parson Morris 
 
 Ruler of England 
 
 Imber's Wellington 
 Jeeve's Glorioso 
 
 Lady Dacre 
 
 Jeoffrey's Nelson 
 Knight's Wellington 
 Keen's Oldenburgh 
 Kilner's Cricketer 
 Langford's Burdett 
 
 , Countess of 
 
 Pembroke 
 
 Looker's Oxonian 
 Lock's Glory of Newport 
 Lovegrove's Duchess of 
 
 Gloucester 
 Maltby's Apollo 
 -- Adonis 
 Man's Duchess of Angou- 
 
 Metcalfs Blucher 
 Maynard's Rose-leafed 
 Moor's Seedling 
 Pope's Royal Purple 
 Pittman's Louisa 
 Picton's Ensign 
 Penning's Queen 
 Pottecary's Eclipse 
 -- Queen 
 Perryn's Bright Scarlet 
 Rees* Eclipse 
 Button's Wellington 
 Sawyer's Archduke Charles 
 Style's Hero 
 - Queen Caroline 
 Stevens' Fine Rose 
 -- Waterloo 
 Spencer's Maria 
 Somerset Hero 
 Studwick's Blucher 
 -- Duke of York 
 
THE PINK. 
 
 119 
 
 Smith's Windsor Castle 
 Thompson's Regent 
 Tagg's Wellington 
 Taylor's Lord Nelson 
 Turner's Regent 
 Princess Charlotte 
 Townshend's Trafalgar 
 Wollard's King George IV. 
 Wiltshire's Seedling 
 AVales's Beauty 
 Webb and Smith's Wel- 
 lington 
 
 Willmer's Quiz 
 
 Little Henry 
 
 Illustrious 
 
 Coronation 
 
 Eclipse 
 
 King George IV. 
 
 Esquire Ricketts 
 
 Gamester 
 
 Watt's Sir William Watts 
 Weedon's Matchless 
 Williams' Queen Caroline 
 
 SCOTCH PINKS. 
 
 Buchanan's Caledonia 
 Dickson's Pomona 
 Finlayson's Bonny Lass 
 Henderson's Duchess of 
 
 Athol 
 
 Johnson's Ossian 
 Martin's Isabella 
 Miln's Flora 
 
 Robertson's Gentle Shep- 
 herd 
 
 Stewart's Sir William Wal- 
 lace 
 
 Sparke's Highlander 
 
 Wallace's Coat of Mail 
 
 Queen 
 
( 120 ) 
 
 OF THE AURICULA. 
 
 THE Primula Auricula is a flower of great beauty, 
 and in general estimation : it is not less remarkable 
 for the great variety of its colours, than for their 
 peculiar brightness. Its smooth broad leaf, of an 
 oblong shape and glossy green, with an indented 
 edge, sets off its polyanthus, or many- flowered blos- 
 som, to great advantage; each floret of which is 
 supported by a small foot-stalk, rising from the top 
 of the main stalk, the whole forming a magnifi- 
 cent bunch or truss, and exhibiting an appearance 
 of grandeur but little suited to the size of the plant, 
 or indeed expected from it ; it flow r ers early in spring, 
 and is, indeed, one of its greatest ornaments. Having 
 but few rivals to contend with at that early period, 
 it attracts our admiration the more, and seems to 
 engross, in fact, our undivided attention. The scent 
 which it diffuses is not powerful, but, like that of the 
 Wild Primrose, is yet sweet and agreeable. 
 
THE AURICULA; 121 
 
 It is called an alpine or mountainous plant, be- 
 cause it is not only a native of the mountains, but 
 because it grows and thrives best in airy and elevated 
 situations. In low places, surrounded with damps 
 and fogs, it is difficult to keep it in any tolerable 
 health long together, or to get from it any very fine 
 bloom; whoever, therefore, attempts to grow Auri- 
 culas, living in such a situation, should keep them 
 during the winter in frames, raised at least two or 
 three feet above the level of the ground, and allow 
 them all the air possible, but a very scanty supply 
 of water during the three winter months. I am 
 induced to give this caution, because I know the 
 flower is so universally admired, that it is cultivated 
 in all places ; and though art and culture may effect 
 a great deal, they cannot altogether change its nature 
 and habits. 
 
 The most prevailing colours of Auriculas are 
 brown and purple, of different shades, red, crimson, 
 rosy, violet, blue, yellow, &c. with white and yellow 
 eyes. They are divided into two classes plain, or 
 self-coloured, and painted, or variegated; this last 
 
 G 
 
122 THE AURICULA. 
 
 consists of three sorts of varieties, which are distin- 
 guished from each other by the colour of the edges 
 or margins of the petals, which is green, grey, and 
 white. 
 
 The flowers are covered, more or less, with a spe- 
 cies of farina or powder, which has a curious and 
 pleasing effect, and serves, in some degree, to defend 
 them against the rain and sun. This farina is not 
 confined to the blossom only, but is scattered over 
 the leaves of some plants, though not of all. 
 
 A fine green-edged Auricula may be briefly and 
 simply described thus : Every part must be in 
 exact proportion one to another ; the stalk must be 
 proportionate to the leaves, and the pedicles and 
 truss to them both ; the prevailing or ground colour 
 must be bright and distinct; the eye circular, and 
 of a clear white; the border or edging round the 
 petal of a lively green, and all the petals or pips 
 nearly of a size, perfectly level, and disposed in 
 regular order ; the eye, the tube, and the rim, must 
 correspond one with another, showing an exact sym- 
 metry throughout. 
 
THE AURICULA. 123 
 
 After this short account of the Auricula and its 
 properties, I shall next proceed to point out the par- 
 ticular soil or compost in which it is found to thrive 
 best. 
 
 In doing this, I am aware of the difficulty of 
 giving any receipt, however excellent it may be, that 
 will be generally approved or generally adopted ; for 
 the different composts used by florists in growing 
 this flower are as numerous, I might say, as the 
 florists themselves. 
 
 Almost all pride themselves in this, that they are 
 in possession of some infallible nostrum, and some 
 particular system, which are unknown to any but 
 themselves ; yet, after all this mystery and boasting, 
 the state and condition of their plants too often belie 
 their pretended skill, and expose their vain boasting, 
 by showing that there is still great room for improve- 
 ment. 
 
 Simple and easy methods of cultivation have 
 always appeared to me most successful. I have 
 often witnessed persons taking extraordinary pains, 
 and incurring unnecessary expense, to injure, if not 
 
 G 2 
 
124 THE AURICULA. 
 
 destroy, their flowers, which they were so anxious 
 to preserve. Weak minds are soon misled by 
 quackery and novelty, having no sound judgment of 
 their own; and quackery, even in the growing of 
 flowers, has as many followers as in any other line. 
 By having recourse to hot manures, with the nature 
 and strength of which they are unacquainted, they 
 very often burn and poison, as it were, their plants 
 beyond all recovery, and learn experience only by 
 nearly the total destruction of their whole collec- 
 tion. 
 
 The late Matthew Kenney, gardener by pro- 
 fession, was, perhaps, one of the most successful and 
 eminent growers of Auriculas in his day, and won 
 as many prizes as most men, during the course of 
 ten or twelve years that he lived at Totteridge, in 
 Middlesex. He certainly had all the benefit of air, 
 situation, and soil, which, coupled with his fondness 
 for the flower, and his skilful treatment of it, to say 
 nothing of his being almost constantly in the garden, 
 gave him a decided superiority over many of his 
 competitors, and ensured, as it were, his chance of 
 
THE AURICULA. 125 
 
 success. He always kept by him a quantity of 
 sound staple loam, of rather a sandy nature ; this 
 he sweetened by frequent turning. His next prin- 
 cipal ingredient, was sheep-dung and hay litter, well 
 rotted,, by being turned, mixed, and fermented in 
 the same manner as the gardener does horse-dung 
 and straw litter. This he never made use of under 
 twelve or eighteen months, when it had the appear- 
 ance of leaf or fine vegetable mould ; sometimes 
 he put to it a small portion of cow-dung, but this 
 very seldom ; a little clean coarse sand was generally 
 added. These formed his compost for growing them 
 in : but he had another of a richer quality, if I may 
 so term it, with which he used to top-dress his plants, 
 and this he would do sometimes twice in the year. 
 When they killed any sheep, he always reserved 
 the blood, and mixed it with the dung of poultry. 
 These two ingredients he added to his loam and 
 sheep-dung, and these constituted his compost for 
 surface- dressing. 
 
 In fresh potting every year he trimmed and 
 shortened the fibres, and reduced the roots with the 
 
126 THE AURICULA. 
 
 mould adhering to them to the bigness of a mode- 
 rate-sized ball, but never shook the mould com- 
 pletely from the roots, if they were sound and going 
 on well, until the third year ; he then would wash 
 the roots in water, examine them closely, shorten 
 the tap or main root, and cut away any decayed 
 or unsound parts ; but if any plant appeared 
 sickly at any time, he always served it in the same 
 manner. 
 
 He was particularly careful in making the holes 
 at the bottom of the pots larger, and putting in 
 three or four pieces of broken tile to drain the water 
 off, and prevent it from becoming stagnant at the 
 bottom of the pots : this, though apparently a trifling 
 circumstance, ought always to be well attended to. 
 
 The proportions he used, if I remember rightly, 
 (I speak only from memory,) were 
 
 -| Loam, 
 
 Sheep-dung and hay litter, 
 - Coarse sand. 
 
 This sheep manure may be easily obtained from any 
 of the farmers about Finchley, or any other quarter, 
 
THE AURICULA. 127 
 
 who are in the habit of breeding and rearing house- 
 lambs. Neat sheep-dung and loam only, would, I 
 conceive, be of too close and heavy a nature for the 
 Auricula. 
 
 Mr. Kennedy, the late partner of Mr. Lee, used 
 this compost for their Auriculas, to whom Matthew 
 Kenney disclosed its parts and mode of preparing it, 
 and it was greatly approved of by him. Mr. Ken- 
 nedy used to say that he did wonders with it, and 
 that his flowers used to surprise everybody. He 
 added, I understand, a small portion of leaf-mould, 
 most likely from not always having the sheep-dung 
 and litter in the proportions he wished. Sheep-dung 
 is apt to breed a multitude of small white worms, 
 which may easily be got rid of at any time by scat- 
 tering over it a little quick-lime. 
 
 The compost in general use is as follows, and 
 this I mostly make use of myself: 
 
 -J- Fresh yellow loam, or maiden mould, 
 % Cow-dung, well rotten, 
 ^ Night-soil, two years old, 
 J Leaf-mould, 
 <f y Sea or river sand. 
 To be well prepared and incorporated. 
 
128 THE AURICULA. 
 
 Auriculas grow very well in this mixture, which I 
 conceive, upon the whole, a very good one ; but they 
 should be top-dressed about six weeks before they 
 come into bloom, with compost of a stronger and 
 more active manure. Emmerton's compost, of goose- 
 dung and blood, night-soil, loam and sugar-bakers* 
 scum, of each one-third, is well calculated for top- 
 dressing in February. 
 
 Whoever grows Auriculas in low situations, will 
 perhaps do well to use old frame-dung instead of 
 cow-dung, because it dries sooner than cow-dung, 
 which is better calculated for elevated situations. 
 The circulation of air is always brisker on the hills 
 than in vales ; and, besides, I am inclined to attri- 
 bute the rot, which in moist summers and autumns 
 very frequently attacks the Auricula, to too great a 
 portion of cow-dung in the compost. 
 
 Where a large stud of Auriculas (to use a York- 
 shire term) is kept, it seldom happens that the 
 same sort of compost precisely is made use of two 
 years together ; this is very often my case. I fre- 
 quently, as opportunities occur, deposit in the same 
 heap the dung of sheep, horses, cows, poultry, 
 
THE AURICULA. 129 
 
 pigeons, night-soil, and blood from the slaughter- 
 house, and turn and mix the whole up together. 
 
 The following compost is also excellent for strong 
 blooming plants, and will retain its virtue for a length 
 of time : 
 
 1 Barrow of sound staple loam, 
 
 1 Do. of dried night-soil, 
 
 2 Do. of the dung of sheep, cows, and poultry, 
 
 mixed in blood from the slaughter-house, in equal 
 quantities. 
 
 J Do. of sea, or river sand, which will be fit for 
 use in no case under two years. 
 
 HADDOCK'S AURICULA MOULD. 
 
 THE present edition of Haddock's Flower Directory, 
 ' much improved,' published by Mr. Harding, St. 
 James's Street, in which he has been assisted by a 
 Mr. Samuel Curtis, lecturer on botany, contains the 
 two following prescriptions, neither of which are ever 
 likely to be made up by any experienced practical 
 
130 
 
 THE AURICULA. 
 
 florists. The first, namely by Maddock, is too 
 complex and difficult to be prepared by any one who 
 is not conversant with fractional parts ; it contains 
 too much cow-dung by half. 
 
 J Rotten cow-dung, two years old, 
 
 Sound earth of an open texture, 
 
 ^ Earth of rotten leaves, 
 
 jL Coarse sea or river sand, 
 
 ^L Soft decayed willow wood, 
 
 ; Peaty or moory earth, 
 
 JL. Of the whole, ashes of burnt vegetables. 
 
 The second by S. Curtis, a theoretical florist, who 
 considers loam unnecessary. 
 
 -| Rotten dung from hot-beds, reduced to mould, 
 % Peat or bog-earth and sand in equal quantities. 
 
 It is well known to all the old florists, now living, 
 that Mr. Maddock neither excelled in the culture of 
 the Auricula, nor of the Carnation ; but he managed 
 Tulips and Ranunculuses well. 
 
 The ' much improved ' in this edition, consists in 
 a very extensive complement of pirated extracts 
 from Justice, Emmerton, and Hogg ; and from the 
 published Transactions of the London Horticultural 
 Society, given by way of notes. 
 
THE AURICULA. 131 
 
 THE LANCASHIRE SYSTEM. 
 
 I HAVE had some conversation lately with a Lan- 
 cashire florist concerning their mode of growing 
 them. He told me that they were not half so parti- 
 cular as the London florists were, or at least as they 
 pretended to be. It must be admitted that they are 
 entitled to great credit for the improvement they have 
 made in this class of flowers, as well as in that of the 
 Polyanthus ; they have undoubtedly in this respect 
 evinced much radical knowledge on the subject ; we 
 are also chiefly indebted to them for most of our 
 finest gooseberries. They use horse-dung and cow- 
 dung indiscriminately, sometimes mixed, sometimes 
 apart, the dung of poultry most frequently, and old 
 decayed willow wood, when they can get it, with the 
 mould cast up by moles, taking care that the same 
 be properly mixed, sweetened, and pulverized. 
 
 In winter they throw it up in narrow ridges, and 
 when the top of it is frozen, they take it off, and 
 so continue to do, till the whole of it has been frozen : 
 
132 THE AURICULA. 
 
 this is their principal preparation. Very few of 
 them, especially the weavers, have frames and 
 lights, but they make use of weather-boarding with 
 hinges, fixed against some wall or fence, in a south 
 aspect, to defend them against the rain and snow, 
 resting, when shut close, upon a board nine inches 
 high ; but this is never done except in very severe 
 weather : the pots are plunged up to the rim in sand, 
 or coal-ashes ; in blooming time they set their large 
 show plants under hand-glasses, in an east aspect, 
 to receive the morning sun only. The plants are 
 perhaps not so early in bloom as those wintered in 
 frames, but then their stems are not drawn, and they 
 are able to support the trusses firmly ; the mildew 
 and rot do not take them so readily as when in closer 
 situations. 
 
 NOVEMBER, DECEMBER, AND JANUARY. 
 
 As my intention was, when I first set about this 
 small work, npt to enter into all the minute history 
 
THE AURICULA. 133 
 
 of the Auricula, nor to follow it through every stage 
 of its growth, and to state every trifling incident re- 
 lative thereto, I will not depart now from such deter- 
 mination, but will proceed to give, in a summary 
 way, a few general directions on all the points that 
 appear to me most material and important. 
 
 I will resume the subject, then, with the com- 
 mencement of the autumnal rains, which fall more 
 or less towards the middle or end of October, and 
 from which it is absolutely necessary to protect the 
 Auricula, by placing it under cover. A temporary 
 shelter for a few weeks longer \vould be infinitely 
 preferable to placing them in their winter-quarters in 
 the frames ; but if you have no means of affording 
 them this temporary shelter, put them at once into 
 the frames, where they will have to remain till the 
 spring. Let your frames be raised on a few bricks, 
 to admit a free current of air under them, and so let 
 them continue as long as the weather is open and 
 temperate, which in some seasons is often the case 
 till near Christmas. As soon as the frost sets in, 
 remove the bricks, and let the frame rest on the 
 
134 THE AURICULA. 
 
 ground. The plants will require, in all dry and tem- 
 perate weather, to be exposed to the open air through- 
 out the winter. Let them be* set on four inches deep 
 of coal-ashes, and be kept rather dry than otherwise 
 till February, receiving the water you give them 
 through the small pipe of a water-pot ; be careful 
 also not to let the water run into the heart of the 
 plant, and contrive to give it them when the air is 
 mild, and the wind southward. If the surface mould 
 in the pots becomes incrusted from damp and stag- 
 nated air, the effect of too close confinement, take a 
 small skewer, and stir the surface lightly, taking off 
 at the same time any decayed leaves. 
 
 FEBRUARY AND MARCH. 
 
 WE will now suppose that we have reached the first 
 or second week in February, and that the weather is 
 open, with gentle rains occasionally ; if that be the 
 case, let the plants have the benefit of them for an 
 
THE AURICULA. 135 
 
 hour or so, and this two or three times a week ; and 
 observe the same rule throughout March. 
 
 Any time in February when the weather permits,, 
 begin to top-dress your plants with some of your 
 richest and strongest compost, as recommended 
 before, removing first the mould from the top, with- 
 out disturbing or injuring the fibres. 
 
 At the beginning of March, you may shift such 
 of the plants as require it into larger pots to bloom ; 
 and as they begin to shoot up for bloom, reduce all 
 the flowering stems to one, draw the lights off the 
 greater part of the day, and give them all the air 
 possible, to prevent the stems being drawn up weak, 
 and let them receive all the gentle rains that fall 
 from the middle to the end of this month, to en- 
 courage and promote their growth ; but shut them 
 close at nights, to prevent the opening blossoms 
 being nipped by the frost, which will still frequently 
 recur at this season. 
 
 It must be admitted that florists are indebted to 
 Mr. Emmerton for the suggestion of extra covering 
 by night, when the pips begin to open, to prevent 
 
136 THE AURICULA. 
 
 their receiving any sudden check or injury from 
 frost ; and I hesitate not to say, that I have adopted 
 the use of a thick blanket, which I put next to the 
 glass, with a couple of stout -mats over it, about the 
 20th of March, and continue it for three weeks or a 
 month, according as the weather may be; for it is 
 certain, that whatever petals are touched by frost 
 never become level nor show their right colours. 
 
 APRIL. 
 
 IN this month the blossoms begin to expand and 
 display their rich and brilliant colours, and it is 
 then necessary to keep the lights over them night 
 and day, to preserve their beauty unimpaired, and 
 to admit air into the frame behind. The blossoms 
 must not only be protected from the rains, but also 
 from the mid-day sun, (which often begins about 
 this time to dart his fierce rays,) by a net or old 
 thin mat thrown over them. Notwithstanding this, 
 you must still shut them up close at night, and even 
 
THE AURICULA. 137 
 
 cover them with an additional mat, to prevent the 
 blossoms being checked or injured by the frost. 
 This is the very crisis of time that requires your 
 most particular care. 
 
 As this flower produces more pips and blossoms 
 than can expand at one time, it is necessary, at the 
 beginning or so of this month, to cut out with great 
 care the interior or middle pips, reserving not fewer 
 than seven, nor more than thirteen : they should be 
 taken out two or three at a time, and it requires 
 sonie taste, nicety, and art, to perform this operation 
 well, that the blossoms which are left may grow 
 in a regular equidistant form, so that any common, 
 spectator might suppose that no such thinning of 
 the pips had taken place, but that they had grown 
 exactly in that form, and with that number, from 
 the first. 
 
 By thus timely reducing the quantity of the pips, 
 the rest are enabled to grow and increase greatly in 
 size as well as beauty, and to give room to one 
 another to expand, and become flat and level, which 
 is a property required in all flowers that are exhi- 
 bited for prizes. 
 
138 
 
 THE AURICULA. 
 
 To do this well, and bring the pips level, is a 
 piece of art that the florist prides himself upon, and 
 for which, as in the dressing of a Pink or Carna- 
 tion, he takes to himself great praise. 
 
 Towards the end of this month, your flowers will 
 have attained their greatest beauty and splendour : 
 they should then be removed to the stage fronting 
 the east, to catch the morning sun, which sun is all 
 they require from this time till October. 
 
 I shall now leave you for a w r hile to enjoy their 
 smiles, contemplate their charms, and partake of 
 their fragrance, with this strict injunction, that you 
 do not keep them too long upon the stage, to the 
 injury of their future health and well doing. 
 
 When you remove them from the stage, you must 
 still continue them in a north-east aspect, to avoid 
 the scorching rays of the summer's sun ; they should 
 be set upon thin boards or thin slates, lying on a 
 bed of coal-ashes. Now they are out of bloom, they 
 will require very frequent/ almost daily watering, 
 through the pipe of the water-pot, and occasionally 
 with a fine rose, over the leaves. It is best to do 
 this frequently and moderately, and not to saturate 
 
THE AURICULA. 139 
 
 them with too much water at one time. The de- 
 cayed leaves should be taken off from time to time, 
 and the pots kept clear of weeds. 
 
 Owing to the continued rains that have fallen during 
 the last two autumns, (1818 and 1819,) and which 
 were too lasting and heavy for the plants to receive 
 and discharge without injury, I have been under the 
 necessity of erecting a covering of thin feather-edged 
 boards, which I fasten back or let down according to 
 the state of the weather ; and I now place the plants 
 under it as soon as they are out of bloom, upon a 
 platform raised six inches above the ground, made 
 of deal, similar to those in green-houses ; I have 
 found this a very convenient and appropriate situa- 
 tion ; two hours of gentle rain are as much as they 
 ought to receive at any one time. 
 
 To encourage the growing of the seed, pluck the 
 withered blossoms from the seed-vessels ; for if left 
 on, they are apt to retain the wet, and often injure 
 and prevent its ripening. 
 
140 THE AURICULA. 
 
 THE BEST TIME FOR FRESH POTTING 
 CONSIDERED. 
 
 I AM now arrived at that part of my subject on 
 which a great difference of opinion prevails amongst 
 florists ; namely, as to the proper time for fresh 
 potting the plants. Many affirm, that as soon as 
 the plants have performed their duty and flowered, 
 and have relapsed into a state of comparative rest 
 and inactivity, that is the only proper season to 
 transplant and fresh pot them, which is towards the 
 end of May. The off-sets are then to be taken off 
 also. This is the season recommended both by 
 Maddock and Emmerton. I, however, do not 
 coincide in opinion with them, but approve of a 
 later season for doing this, in which I am borne out 
 by the practice of several, who do not perform this 
 part of the business before the first week in August. 
 The reasons which I have to offer are these : if you 
 put your plants at this early period of the summer 
 into pots, in which they are to remain till they 
 flower again next spring, the space of nearly twelve 
 
THE AURICULA. 141 
 
 months, the strength of the compost must be greatly 
 reduced before that time, particularly as they re- 
 quire so much watering during the hot months of 
 June and July : this must tend, beyond all doubt, 
 to exhaust the nutriment contained in so small a 
 body of earth as is in the pots; by which means 
 they will be less able to throw out strong fibres, or 
 to produce you strong blooms in the spring. 
 
 This early potting is attended with another evil 
 consequence ; for, the plants being removed into 
 fresh and more vegetative earth, accompanied with 
 daily waterings, forces them prematurely into a state 
 of active vegetation, and causes them to flower late 
 in the autumn, a circumstance which the florist 
 always views with regret, as it in a great measure 
 destroys his hopes of a fine bloom at their natural 
 and expected season, towards the latter end of April : 
 this last argument of itself appears to me quite con- 
 clusive in favour of late potting. 
 
 The slips or off-sets will also have acquired more 
 strength and better roots, by being suffered to adhere 
 to the parent plant till the beginning of August, and 
 
142 THE AURICULA. 
 
 will occasion you less trouble in protecting and 
 shading them. 
 
 From the beginning of August to the beginning 
 of November, is a period quite long enough for the 
 plants to strike fresh fibres, and to get well esta- 
 blished in the pots, before winter; and, with the 
 return of spring, you may expect a vigorous growth 
 of the plant in all its parts. 
 
 The customary mode is, to shake the mould com- 
 pletely from the roots every second year ; but, in 
 doing this, you must be guided by the state and 
 condition of your plants. Kenney, as I remarked 
 before, lets his remain very frequently until the third 
 year, reducing the ball of earth only, trimming the 
 fibres, and examining the main root. 
 
 Transplanting should be done in a cloudy sky 
 and a moist atmosphere. 
 
 In the former edition I gave a decided preference 
 for late potting : I now beg to submit a few modifi- 
 cations of the above rule, which subsequent expe- 
 rience has suggested as necessary to be attended to. 
 Whenever you perceive fresh roots issuing from the 
 
THE AURICULA. 143 
 
 neck of a plant above the mould, as is very often 
 the case during 1 their quick growth in the spring, 
 such plant beyond a doubt ought to be fresh potted 
 the moment it has done flowering. I have no ob- 
 jection either to your fresh potting in May or June 
 such plants as you mean to shake completely from 
 the mould, for I have found plants so treated to take 
 twelve months to establish themselves again in the 
 pots; but those plants that you mean to remove 
 with a ball of earth to them, had better be deferred, 
 for the reasons above given, till the beginning of 
 August. 
 
 MODE OF TREATING FLOWERS WHICH ARE 
 APT TO CUP. 
 
 SOME flowers, whose petals are of thick, firm tex- 
 ture, are generally inclined to cup, as Kenyon's 
 Ringleader, Bearlis's Superb, and several others; 
 when this is the case, they should be exposed a few 
 hours for two or three days in the very face of the 
 sun, under a hand-glass, shaded with a piece of 
 
144 THE AURICULA. 
 
 mat or gardener's blue apron. This warm confine- 
 ment under the glass has the effect of gradually 
 producing a greater expansion of the petal, and of 
 making them pliable, so *hat with a little care and 
 nicety, and a thin piece of smooth wood, you will 
 be enabled to lock the edges of the pips under one 
 another and bring them level. 
 
 A piece of smooth ivory with a hole in it, nearly 
 the size of the pip, if pressed lightly upon the pip, 
 will also help to bring it level. 
 
 Plants that are in a forward state of bloom are 
 usually set under large hand-glasses upon bricks 
 during the day ; and if they are not replaced in the 
 frames during the night, the bricks must be taken 
 away arid a thick mat thrown over them. Great 
 benefit also arises from very lightly watering the 
 leaves of the Auricula when in flower, through a 
 very fine engine-turned brass rose, about the size of 
 half-a-crown, with a crane neck to prevent any water 
 falling on the blossom ; this done about four o'clock 
 in the afternoon gives the leaves a lively and healthy 
 verdure in the morning: for it is well ascertained, 
 
THE AURICULA. 145 
 
 that plants not only draw through their leaves part 
 of their nourishment, but that the leaves perform 
 the necessary work of converting the water received 
 at their roots into the nature and juices of the plants; 
 hence it is that the lives of plants depend so imme- 
 diately on their leaves. 
 
 RAISING OF PLANTS FROM SEED. 
 
 1 HAVE already extended the subject of Auriculas 
 farther than I intended : I will, therefore, conclude 
 it with an observation or two respecting the raising 
 of plants from seed. 
 
 Whatever seed you collect during the summer, 
 keep it in a dry state till the time of sowing, which, 
 if in the front part of a greenhouse, the best of 
 all situations, should not be later than the 1st of 
 February : by sowing then, you will be enabled to 
 get your seedling plants into a forward state during 
 summer, and may reckon on their blooming the 
 following spring. 
 
 H 
 
146 THE AURICULA. 
 
 The seed should be sown in wide-topped 24-cast 
 pots ; the surface mould finely sifted, and made flat 
 and even, and the seed not covered deeper than 
 about the thickness of a crown-piece. Let the top 
 be made level, and batted down after sowing with a 
 smooth, flat board, or the bottom of a garden-pot. 
 
 As soon as the seed break ground, and the plants 
 make their appearance, they should receive, almost 
 daily, but at the same time very gentle, waterings, 
 from a garden syringe or fine rose, to forward and 
 encourage their growth. 
 
 If the seed is to be sown in the open air, let it be 
 done in pans about the 1st of March, and a hand- 
 glass kept over it to protect and forward it, and keep 
 the rains from washing it bare. As soon as the 
 plants will bear transplanting, remove them into 
 wide-mouthed 48ths, and place them round the side 
 of the pots, sheltering them from the hot rays of the 
 sun. In the spring, shift them again into small pots 
 of 60 to a cast, to bloom. 
 
 All pin-eyed flowers are accounted of no value, 
 and may therefore be thrown away, as not worth the 
 trouble of growing. 
 
THE AURICULA. 147 
 
 Considering the number of years that the Auricula 
 has been cultivated in this country, the varieties are 
 comparatively few ; yet, ,from the increasing esta- 
 blishment of Flower Societies, not only in England, 
 but in Scotland and Ireland also, in which Socie- 
 ties silver cups and other prizes are yearly awarded 
 to those members who exhibit the finest and most 
 perfect flowers, and from the great pains and atten- 
 tion now paid to raising of seedlings, we may very 
 fairly expect, in the course of a few years more, a 
 very considerable accession of new flowers : indeed, 
 at this moment I know of several very superior seed- 
 lings in the hands of different florists ; but it will be 
 some time before they can propagate such a stock of 
 each as shall induce them to put those new flow r ers 
 into circulation. They have also the ordeal of trial 
 to go through : they must win the first or second 
 prize at some exhibition or other, and have stood the 
 contest with some first-rate flowers. No common, 
 indifferent flower will be accepted. At no period, I 
 believe, has this flower been cultivated with so much 
 ardour as at present and what will not perseverance 
 
 H 2 
 
148 THE AURICULA. 
 
 in any favourite pursuit accomplish ? Some for their 
 amusement and gratification, some from motives of 
 gain, others again from a spirit of rivalship, and 
 many from a desire of fame, even in this pursuit, 
 and a wish to have their names registered in the 
 fancy-flower calendar, are anxious to produce new 
 varieties from seed, and, in truth, spare neither pains 
 nor expense to accomplish their desired object. 
 
 I have always found that young, vigorously grow- 
 ing plants of two or three years old, with only one 
 stem rising from the side, produce the roundest and 
 most perfect seed. Plants, then, of this age, and 
 possessed of good properties, both in respect to colour 
 and symmetry, ought to be selected for this purpose; 
 they should neither be kept too long in the frame nor 
 confined on the stage, but should have a full expo- 
 sure to the air in a shady situation, yet receive the 
 morning rays of the sun ; they, of course, must be 
 protected from hail-storms and very heavy rains : 
 growing in this hardy state, they will undoubtedly 
 be more likely to ripen and perfect their seed. 
 
 The Auricula, like many other flowers, in its pro- 
 
THE AURICULA. 149 
 
 ductions from seed is inconstant, variable,, changeful. 
 If you sow the seed of a green-edged flower, you 
 must not expect them to come all green-edged ; nor 
 of a white-edged, all white-edged ; indeed, you have 
 no right to expect they should come so, if the seed 
 has been saved from plants growing in the company 
 of all the sorts, for in that case the breed will un- 
 doubtedly be a mixed breed. To have a pure un- 
 mixed breed of clear, green-edged flowers, for in- 
 stance, as pure, at least, as the inconstancy of this 
 flower will admit, it is necessary to remove two or 
 three plants of any one fine sort from the general 
 collection in the spring, before they come into flower, 
 to a distance, I would say, if it were possible, of a 
 mile, at least, from any other Auriculas : by doing 
 this, you will take all the reasonable pains, and use 
 all the feasible means, to ensure an unmixed breed ; 
 you will prevent any impregnation ; and if there be 
 a chance of the parent plant breeding an offspring 
 anything like itself, that chance will be yours. 
 
 I particularly press this upon the youthful florist ; 
 as for the old humdrum, ignorant, conceited, blind 
 
 H 3 
 
150 THE AURICULA. 
 
 doodles, who do little, and noodles, who know little, 
 why, let them pursue their own headstrong way. 
 e Viam monstrare erranti,' with such conjurors, is 
 time thrown away. 
 
 Pollit has lately raised a fine green-edged seedling 
 from his Highland Laddie upon this very principle, 
 which is now selling out under the name of Ruler of 
 England, and considered an excellent flower. 
 
 I am principally indebted to the ingenious Mr. 
 Warris, of Sheffield, a name well known among 
 florists, for the following minutely detailed method 
 of raising seedlings. 
 
 Every one who has made the experiment will, I 
 believe, admit with me, the difficulty which attends 
 the raising of Auriculas from seed. 
 
 The Auricula being among the earliest flowers of 
 the spring, it is requisite that its seed should be 
 sown almost with the commencement of the year, to 
 enable it to germ, vegetate, and grow precisely at 
 that season which Nature has assigned for the prin- 
 cipal growth of this plant. If you defer sowing till 
 the middle of March, or beginning of April, the 
 
THE AURICULA. 151 
 
 young plants will hardly make their appearance be- 
 fore May, when the Auricula has nearly done both 
 growing and flowering, and is relapsing into a state 
 of inactivity; thus they will lose that particular 
 impulse of nature, which would so materially pro- 
 mote their growth and progress. If great care be 
 not taken in watering and shading at this late season, 
 it is very great chance indeed but they are scorched 
 and burnt up by the sun. Let your seed be sown 
 early in January, at any rate not later than the first 
 of February, in pots adapted to the size of your 
 striking or bell glasses, no matter whether in 32 or 
 24-sized pots, which are to be filled one inch and a 
 half deep at. the bottom with broken oyster-shells, 
 tiles, or small cinders, to ensure a good drainage ; 
 then fill the pots with finely-sifted compost, and 
 smooth the top of it with a flat smooth board, made 
 round to fit the inside of the pot ; let the compost be 
 fullest in the middle, gradually falling to the sides 
 of the pot. Then sow your seed as regularly as you 
 possibly can, and cover it, as near as you can guess, 
 with fine mould passed through a sieve to the thick- 
 
152 THE AURICULA, 
 
 ness of a shilling : take a clothes or other soft brush 
 and dip it into soft water, giving it a shake to throw 
 off the heavy weight of the water, then either shake 
 it over the seed, or draw your hand along the hair, 
 and it will fall like a dew upon it ; repeat this till you 
 perceive the compost to be well moistened. By 
 watering in this manner you will not be liable to dis- 
 turb or wash out the seed. 
 
 You may then put on the bell-glasses, or if you 
 have not these, you may cover the seed with squares 
 of window-glass, resting on the tops of the pots, 
 which, in the opinion of many, answer full as well, 
 if not better. Place the pots in pans or saucers in 
 the front of a greenhouse, or the window of a dwell- 
 ing-house close to the glass, where they will have 
 the benefit of the sun, and keep the saucers well 
 supplied with water, so as to render top-watering 
 less frequent and necessary. If you perceive at any 
 time a little mouldiness on the surface of the mould, 
 arising from the confined damp, take off' the glasses 
 for a day, and let them be wiped and dry before you 
 replace them. 
 
THE AURICULA. 153 
 
 The seed, if good, and kept moist, and the wea- 
 ther prove favorable, will strike root and make its 
 appearance in a month, but sometimes not under 
 six weeks. When the seed is up, I then recommend 
 you to take away the striking glasses, and place 
 squares of window-glass over the pots in their stead, 
 for you must be careful not to confine them too long, 
 and so draw them up weak, as you would mustard 
 and cress. Give air gradually, and harden them to 
 it by degrees. The young plants, when beginning 
 to sprout, will sometimes throw their roots out of 
 ground, which must be carefully put in again, by 
 making a small cleft, in the earth, and closing the 
 soil round them ; this may be done with a long flat 
 bit of ivory or smooth wood, thin at the end, and 
 about one-eighth of an inch broad, or they will come 
 to nothing. 
 
 As soon as the plants are fit to handle, transplant 
 them carefully into store pans or pots, an inch apart, 
 filled with proper compost, which ought to be raised 
 in a convex form, one inch and a half higher in the 
 middle than at the sides ; water with the brush as 
 
 H 5 
 
154 
 
 THE AURICULA, 
 
 before, and place the flat window-glass over the tops 
 of the pots, for a week or two longer, shading them 
 from the sun in the middle of the day. Water as 
 often as you see occasion. If your plants thrive and 
 do well, in a month or five weeks more you may 
 transplant them a second time into fresh compost, 
 which will very much encourage their growth, where 
 they may remain till August, when you may plant 
 them singly in 60-cast pots, or put three round the 
 edge of a 48, for next spring bloom. 
 
 1 Non omnia possumus omnes.' VIUGIL. 
 Yet I am satisfied if you pursue the mode which 
 I have laid down, you will succeed, and there is cer- 
 tainly more pleasure in rearing and nursing a hand- 
 some bantling of your own, than in adopting that of 
 another, even though it should be gifted with supe- 
 rior charms. 
 
THE AURICULA. 155 
 
 SYMPTOMS OF DISEASE IN AURICULAS. 
 
 ANY time in the year when you perceive an Auri- 
 cula grow crooked, and throw its top or head on one 
 side, like a hen with the pip, as an old gardener 
 once observed, it is evident disease has commenced : 
 the plant must be taken up immediately if you wish 
 to save it, and be carefully examined. The roots 
 ought to be washed, and every unsound part cut 
 away. Cracks in the side are indicative of decay. 
 A purplish hue at the bottom of the leaves and 
 round the neck, denotes danger of mortification. 
 When plants have been removed into fresh compost 
 for some time, and begin to look sulky and sickly, 
 and make no progress, you may take it for granted 
 that they dislike their food : remove them again into 
 a simple compost of fresh sweet loam, sand, and leaf 
 mould, till they recover their verdure. 
 
 Incautious watering in the heart or cup formed by 
 the leaves will often occasion decay, particularly in 
 winter, when there is neither wind to dry, nor sun 
 
156 
 
 THE AURICULA. 
 
 to exhale ; it will remain for two or three days be- 
 fore it be all imbibed. Any pot that does not dry 
 readily like the rest will soon become sickly from the 
 stagnation of water; proper drainage is wanting. 
 Sick plants should be removed and set by themselves. 
 The diseases among Auriculas are said to be often 
 infectious, and will sweep off a whole collection in the 
 course of a few weeks ; this shows that care and at- 
 tention are always required. 
 
 Archer's Champion 
 Ashworth's Rule All 
 Barlow's Morning Star 
 Bearless's Superb 
 Booth's Freedom 
 Butter worth's Lord Hood 
 
 Duchess of 
 
 Wellington 
 Brown's Mrs. Clarke 
 Barlow's King 
 Buckley's Jolly Tar 
 Clegg's Lady of Honour 
 ' Black and Green 
 
 Blucher 
 
 dough's Do-little 
 *. " Defiance 
 
 Cox's British Hero 
 Chilcott's King 
 
 Brilliant 
 
 Crompton's Adm 1 . Gardner 
 Coldham's Blucher 
 Dean's Smoker 
 
 Regulator 
 
 Dyson's Queen 
 Eaton's Volunteer 
 Eggleton's Alexander 
 Foden's Victory 
 
 Rosamond 
 
 Grimes's Privateer 
 
 Hyder AH 
 
 Gorton's Champion 
 Golclham's Vertiminus 
 
THE AURICULA. 
 
 157 
 
 Hayley's Prince of Wales 
 
 Key's Lovely Ann 
 
 Hoffley's or Howard's Lord 
 Nelson 
 
 Hughes's Pillar of Beauty 
 
 Kenyon's Ringleader 
 
 Leigh's Colonel Taylor 
 
 Talavera 
 
 Lee's Venus 
 
 Sir William Wallace 
 
 Lawrie's Glory of Cheshunt 
 
 Field Marshal 
 
 Metcalf's Hero - 
 
 Moore's Jubilee 
 
 Marchioness of Sa- 
 lisbury 
 
 Ogden's Sir Rowland Hill 
 
 Owen's Princess of Wales 
 
 Pollit's Highland Boy 
 
 Ruler of England 
 
 Page's Oldenburgh 
 
 Champion 
 
 Waterloo 
 
 Pott's Regulator 
 
 Delegate 
 
 Pearson's Badajoz 
 
 Partington's Sir Solomon 
 
 Trafalgar 
 
 Pendleton's Violet 
 Popplewell's Conqueror 
 Rider's Waterloo 
 Scholes's Mrs. Clarke 
 Snook's Beauty 
 Regulator 
 
 Slater's Cheshire Hero 
 
 Stretch's Alexander 
 
 Waterloo 
 
 Smith's Emperor 
 
 Duke of Sussex 
 
 Waterloo 
 
 Simpson's Marquis of 
 Granby 
 
 Tomlinson's Commander- 
 in-chief 
 
 Thompson's Bang-up 
 
 Revenge 
 
 Tranter's Constellation 
 
 Thornicroft's Invincible 
 
 Taylor's Ploughboy 
 
 Glory 
 
 Incomparable 
 
 Victory 
 
 Alexander 
 
 Warris's Blucher 
 
 Union 
 
 _ Colossus 
 
158 
 
 THE AURICULA. 
 
 Whitehead's Reform 
 Waterhouse's Seedling 
 Wrigley's Nortliern Hero 
 Wild's Colonel Anson 
 Lord Cochrane 
 
 Wild's Lord Bridport 
 
 Highland Lass 
 
 Black and Clear 
 
 Y/ood's Lord Lascelles 
 Yates's Collingwood 
 
 PLAIN OR SELF-COLOURED OF VARIOUS SHADES. 
 
 Redman's Metropolitan 
 Key's Apollo 
 Bury's Lord Primate 
 Schole's Ned Ludd 
 Whittaker's True Blue 
 Howe's Venus 
 Hogg's Urania 
 
 Webb's Caroline 
 Howe's Cupid 
 Flora's Flag 
 Lee's Mrs. Munday 
 Ancient Lady 
 Grand Turk, 
 &c. &c. 
 
Ftii> 
 
 .4 DaMtij /.itAey*70 S' 
 
( 159 ) 
 
 OF THE 
 
 PRIMROSE AND POLYANTHUS. 
 
 THE Polyanthus, in its culture, bears the same rela- 
 tion to the Auricula as the Pink does to the Carna- 
 tion; differing, however, in this respect, like the 
 Pink, that it is hardier in its nature, and more 
 easily cultivated. 
 
 Though all plants appear to grow in nearly the 
 same manner, and the same sort of earth or soil to 
 suit the same kind and species, and though their 
 common parts and constituent principles are proved 
 by a chemical analysis to consist of similar materials, 
 yet their colours, tastes, and scents, are as various as 
 their forms, and bear no analogy or resemblance to 
 each other. 
 
 The Primrose and Polyanthus require a much 
 greater portion of sandy loam than the auricula, a 
 very small quantity of rotten cow-dung, and a little 
 leaf-mould or heath or peat earth, mixed with them : 
 
160 THE PRIMROSE AND POLYANTHUS. 
 
 in this they are found to grow extremely well. The 
 double paper-white Primrose requires no dung at all, 
 indeed dung is hurtful to it. 
 
 The Double Primrose is truly a beautiful flower ; 
 the different coloured sorts of which are : 
 
 White, Pink, 
 
 Yellow, Crimson, 
 
 Lilac, Purple. 
 
 It is propagated by off-sets from the root, which may 
 be parted as soon as it is done flowering. 
 
 The Polyanthus consists of many different tints 
 and shades ; but the most esteemed are, a bright red 
 or scarlet, and a very dark crimson, and chocolate 
 with brimstone or lemon-coloured eyes, and the 
 edging of the same. 
 
 Let it be remembered, that those flowers, if planted 
 in the ground, and which indeed is the only success- 
 ful way of growing them, should be in a situation 
 
 exposed to the morning rays of the sun, and ex- 
 
 i 
 eluded from them the rest of the day. It is folly, 
 
 and a waste both of time and plants, to keep them 
 all the year round in pots, especially in the near 
 
THE PRIMROSE AND POLYANTHUS. 
 
 161 
 
 vicinity of London : I have found it so; others may, 
 perhaps, be more successful. I admit it is conve- 
 nient to have them in pots in the spring, both for 
 exhibition and sale : in this case, the moment the 
 pips begin to fade, turn them into the ground, and 
 let them remain there till near Michaelmas, when 
 you may again remove them into pots. Keep slugs 
 and snails from them. The Polyanthus in coming 
 into flower should be set under a hand-glass raised 
 upon bricks, and shaded ; constant exposure to the 
 air soon tans the bright lemon-coloured eye and 
 lacing. 
 
 Bray's Wellington 
 Buck's Traveller 
 Billington's Beauty of Over 
 Brown's King 
 Cox's Regent 
 Crownsliaw's Invincible 
 Darlington's Defiance 
 Fletcher's Defiance 
 Fillingham's Tantararara 
 Hattersley's Invincible 
 Harley's Sceptre 
 Defiance 
 
 Heapey's Smiler 
 Hopkins' King 
 Johnson's Miss Mitford 
 Lombard's Highlander 
 Lee's Magnificent 
 
 Superb 
 
 Harlequin 
 
 Mason's Black Prince 
 Massey's Venus 
 Martin's Prince William 
 Moore's King 
 Parke's Lord Nelson 
 
162 
 
 THE PRIMROSE AND POLYANTHUS. 
 
 Pearson's Alexander 
 
 Blackguard 
 
 Defiance 
 
 RadclifFs Waterloo 
 Steed's Telegraph 
 Stretch's Traveller 
 Thomas's Invincible 
 
 Waterloo 
 
 Turner's Buonaparte 
 
 Prince of Wales 
 
 Princess 
 
 Marquis of Titch- 
 
 field 
 
 Tandy's Blucher 
 
 Regent 
 
 Thomas's Ruler of Eng- 
 land 
 
 Thompson's Lord Nelson 
 
 Thorpe's Golden Ball 
 
 Wilde's Gleaner 
 
 Waterhouse's Incompa- 
 rable 
 
 Princess 
 
 Charlotte 
 
 Warris's Alderman Wood 
 
 Yorkshire Regent 
 
 Note. Mason's Black Prince and Turner's Marquis 
 of Titchfiekl, lately raised from seed, are both fine 
 flowers. 
 
( 163 ) 
 
 OF THE RANUNCULUS. 
 
 THE Ranunculus Asiaticus, or Garden Ranunculus, 
 is a flower very generally,, but at the same time very 
 unsuccessfully cultivated : it is very seldom indeed 
 that you have an opportunity of beholding this flower 
 in any great perfection; but if you are fortunate 
 enough to meet with a bed of the choicest sorts, 
 growing in full health and vigour, and bearing a 
 profusion of splendid blossoms of all colours, plain 
 and variegated, you will be forced to admit that it is 
 an admirable sight, and one of the grandest displays 
 of nature in vegetable life. A bed of fine Ranun- 
 culuses is esteemed by many in no degree inferior to 
 a bed of the richest Tulips. 
 
 Here yellow globular blossoms present themselves 
 in all shades, from the pale straw to the golden 
 crocus; red of all tints pink, rose, and flame 
 colour; purple and crimson of every dye; black, 
 brown, olive, and violet, of every hue. Besides 
 
164 THE RANUNCULUS. 
 
 these, there are yellow-spotted flowers, brown-spotted, 
 and white-spotted, red and purple streaked, red and 
 white striped, red and yellow striped, besides mottled 
 and brindled in countless varieties. 
 
 I have had occasion to remark more than once, 
 when purchasing Ranunculus roots of a very eminent 
 seedsman and florist in Fleet-street, that when I in- 
 quired of him what kind of soil was best calculated 
 for them, he answered, a strong loamy soil without 
 dung. I have proved the fallacy of such an obser- 
 vation. That they will grow in it is true, but in a 
 very stunted, starved, and imperfect state, with stems 
 weak and short, and blossoms small and insignificant. 
 That fresh loamy soil is proper I admit, but then it 
 is necessary to add a considerable portion of rotten 
 horse or cow dung. 
 
 Your choice Ranunculus roots should never be 
 planted in our variable climate before the middle of 
 February, or the beginning of March, as the wea- 
 ther may be. 
 
 It is true, they will live in the ground through a 
 tolerably mild winter without much covering, and 
 
THE RANUNCULUS. 165 
 
 sustain no injury, and most likely will blossom 
 earlier by being planted in October : but is it worth 
 the while to run that risk, or endanger the safety of 
 a rare and valuable collection, that has required 
 no small trouble and expense to get together ? 
 Prudence forbids it. 
 
 Treading the ground close round the plants, as 
 soon as they have made their appearance in the 
 spring, to keep the cold winds from cracking the 
 ground and injuring the roots, is, I conceive, a very 
 unwise and improper step, for the fibres must be 
 bruised and injured by it. The better mode is to 
 top-dress the bed with an inch thick of old cow- 
 dung : this will protect them, and at the same time 
 keep the bed moist and cool afterwards, when the 
 sun shall have acquired greater power, and rendered 
 watering necessary. 
 
 An old book has just been put into my hand, 
 called the s Complete Florist,' written above a 
 hundred years ago, by Henry Van Oosten, a Dutch 
 gardener at Leyden. In treating of the Ranun- 
 culus, he writes thus : 
 
166 THE RANUNCULUS. 
 
 ( This flower is admired for its beautiful and 
 ' lively colours, which dazzle the sight when the sun 
 ' shines upon them. It must be planted the latter 
 ' end of October, in good loamy soil, that has been 
 f well dunged before. Dig the ground above a spit 
 ( deep where you intend to make the bed, and throw 
 ' it out on each side, then put in near a foot thick of 
 ' horse-dung, half rotten, that has not yet lost all its 
 6 strength ; upon this lay the earth you had taken 
 ( out before, but let it be well worked and broken to 
 ( pieces first : it should be often turned in the sum- 
 ' mer. Plant the roots two inches deep, and four 
 ' inches apart every way ; when this is done, lay on 
 ' the top of the bed night-soil an inch thick, quite 
 ' reduced to mould. He that has none, may use 
 < horse-dung in the same manner.' 
 
 The making of your bed I would recommend to 
 be done in this way : let the depth of your mould 
 be nearly two feet, and the whole of that depth 
 turned and dug. The calculation, I believe, is 
 pretty accurate, when I say, that the length of the 
 roots or fibres of any tree or plant is in proportion to 
 
THE RANUNCULUS. 167 
 
 their height, and therefore the small stringy fibres 
 of the Ranunculus will nearly reach to that depth. 
 
 If your loam is fresh and without manure, after 
 having dug it, put towards the autumn all over the 
 surface of the bed six or eight inches deep of rotten 
 dung from some cucumber pits, and there let it re- 
 main for two months, after which, dig or trench it 
 in a foot deep; your bed will then be ready for 
 planting in the spring ; and if your loam is not 
 well worked, throw the surface mould into small 
 ridges in the winter, so that the frost may have 
 greater power to act upon it ; for frost, after all, is 
 one of Nature's best workmen in preparing soils for 
 vegetation, crumbling the hardest clods to powder. 
 In a bed so constructed, you may plant your 
 Ranunculus roots for three successive years, giving 
 it every autumn a similar dressing of manure : after 
 that time you must give them a fresh situation, or 
 some fresh soil in the garden. 
 
 Almost all flowers confined too long to the same 
 earth and same spot, I was going to say, and to the 
 same air, degenerate and dwindle away : a change 
 
1G8 
 
 THE RANUNCULUS. 
 
 in all three respects is often requisite,, to renovate, 
 as it were, their crescive faculties, and to ensure 
 their return to their pristine health and condition. 
 Should it be found inconvenient to prepare a bed of 
 fresh soil, and you are under the necessity of plant- 
 ing them in the common garden mould, in this 
 case, if the mould be light and porous, it will then 
 be requisite that you put a stratum of loamy soil six 
 inches deep, to set the roots in. This will help to 
 retain a greater degree of moisture, and serve also 
 to protect them from the searching rays of the sun ; 
 for they ought never to be planted deeper in the 
 ground than an inch and a half; if set deeper, they 
 exhaust their strength in forming a fresh root exactly 
 at that depth, and of course neither flower well, nor 
 yield any good increase. 
 
 The readiest and most certain mode of planting 
 is by drawing drills along the bed, exactly two 
 inches in depth, and then scattering a little coarse 
 sea or river sand along them : in these set the roots, 
 with the claws downwards, and press them gently 
 into the sand. If the breadth of your bed be four 
 
THE RANUNCULUS. 169 
 
 feet, and the roots large and good, you may divide 
 it into six rows, and set the roots four inches apart. 
 In covering, be careful not to displace them, and let 
 them be buried as near an inch and a half as pos- 
 sible : you may then take the flat side of the spade, 
 and beat down the surface level : this will in some 
 measure prevent the worms from casting them out. 
 Let it be remembered, that the bed is to be per- 
 fectly level and even, that it may receive all the rain 
 or water in an equal proportion. 
 
 As soon as they shoot up for bloom, if the weather 
 should be dry, they will require an abundant supply 
 of soft water, to encourage a quick growth. I am 
 at a loss to know why the ancients have given to this 
 flower the name of Ranunculus, or Frog-plant, unless 
 it be meant to imply that during the time of its 
 flowering it delights in a plentiful supply of water, 
 which must be given between the rows, and not over 
 the blossoms. The tints of those flowers, particularly 
 the darker sorts, are so fine and delicate, that they 
 soon get tarnished and fade, if they are not sheltered 
 from the scorching rays of the sun. The duration 
 
 I 
 
170 THE RANUNCULUS. 
 
 of this flower is nearly a month, if you take but the 
 pains to shade them. 
 
 By the middle of July the stems will have become 
 withered and decayed, which points out the time for 
 their being taken up : this should be done on a dry 
 day. The stems may be shortened, but not cut close 
 to the roots yet and the roots should be parted be- 
 fore they get dry and hard, or else they are apt to 
 break in parting. Let them be dried gradually in 
 a shady room, open to a free circulation of air. 
 
 The Anemone may be treated in every respect as 
 the Ranunculus, with this slight difference, that it 
 requires to be planted a little deeper in the ground : 
 to say more would only be an unnecessary repetition 
 of the same directions. 
 
 Many persons are fond of buying Dutch Ranun- 
 culuses and Tulips, which now come over every 
 autumn, under the impression of not only getting 
 them very cheap, (which, of course, they sometimes 
 are enabled to do, as it would not answer the im- 
 porter's purpose to send them back again to Holland 
 unsold,) but also of getting them very fine. In thia 
 
THE RANUNCULUS. 
 
 171 
 
 they are not very seldom disappointed; for the 
 Dutchman is something like the Jew in his dealing. 
 You must not expect great bargains for little money : 
 he is very seldom charged, I believe, with sending 
 us any of his best flowers among his common mix- 
 tures ; his Pell-mells, as the florist calls them, are, 
 upon the whole, very indifferent, and not worth the 
 amateur's notice. 
 
 This tribe of named flowers is so very numerous, 
 that to give a list of their names would occupy more 
 space than I can allow them in this short treatise ; I 
 will therefore only add the names of a few of them. 
 
 Catalogue of Ranunculuses. 
 
 Abbe* St. AndrtJ 
 
 Bon Chretien 
 
 Ajax 
 Agloe 
 Arcadia 
 
 Berenice 
 La Chabonniere 
 Cassandra 
 
 Arlequin 
 Aurora 
 
 Cedo nulli 
 Clorinde 
 
 Beaute des Dames 
 Parfaite 
 
 Daphne 
 Diana 
 
 Beau Regard 
 Bishop of Lima 
 Belle Capuchine 
 
 Doris 
 Don Quivedo 
 Diademe Pourpre 
 I 2 
 
172 
 
 THE RANUNCULUS. 
 
 Drusilla 
 
 Diagoras 
 
 Emma 
 
 Euphrates 
 
 Eveque de Bruges 
 
 Feu de Fontenoy 
 
 Feu Granade 
 
 Fanor 
 
 Favorite Mignonne 
 
 Faventella 
 
 Fabian 
 
 Fulgor Solis 
 
 Grand Berger 
 
 Grand Monarque 
 
 Hecate 
 
 L'Imperatrice 
 
 Le Melange des Beautes 
 
 La Medaille 
 
 Marmara 
 
 Miriam 
 
 Manteau Royal 
 
 Naxara 
 
 Negre 
 
 Niobe 
 
 L'CEil Noir 
 
 Le Negre Superbe 
 
 CEillet Bizarre 
 
 Plato 
 
 La Princesse Charmante 
 
 Pizarro 
 
 Passe Brutus 
 
 Paris 
 
 Quixos 
 
 Rodney 
 
 Roi Rouge 
 
 Roxana 
 
 Rose Incomparable 
 
 Rose of Sharon 
 
 Rose Monstrueuse 
 
 Sarah 
 
 Sophia 
 
 Sappho 
 
 Thais 
 
 Temeraire 
 
 Totilla 
 
 Terentius 
 
 Venus 
 
 Virgo 
 
 Vesta 
 
 Violet Bleuatre 
 
 Superbe 
 
 Viola le vrai Noir 
 
 Vereatre 
 
 Vulcan 
 
 La Zebra 
 
 Zoile 
 
 Zephyr 
 
 Zagoras 
 
 Zaire 
 
THJILILP S o 
 
 Trtacher &C"4rf Maria J.ane 
 
( 173 ) 
 
 OF THE TULIP. 
 
 IF the account which I here give of the Tulip be 
 short and defective, I trust the following apology will 
 be considered satisfactory. I had., indeed,, purposed, 
 at setting out, to pass it over altogether, not only 
 because I was unwilling to swell this treatise to a 
 size that might render it inconvenient to be car- 
 ried in the pocket, as a kind of manual, which the 
 florist might readily and easily consult, and for 
 which I intended it, but because those flowers (I 
 mean the finer sorts) are not so very generally cul- 
 tivated. I have since, however, been induced to 
 change my determination; and, in doing so, shall 
 confine the subject matter to those points more es- 
 sentially and more immediately relating to its culti- 
 vation : by this, I shall perhaps avoid the reprehen- 
 sions, in some measure, of all those whose attention 
 is almost exclusively directed to the culture of this 
 flower, and who consider every other as unworthy of 
 
174 THE TULIP. 
 
 their notice. To such I can with truth say, that I 
 have always been a great admirer of the Tulip, and 
 that I esteem it the masterpiece of perfection,, and 
 one of the greatest ornaments of the garden. Many 
 a poor florist may be justly lavish in its praise, with- 
 out ever having it in his power to gratify his wish 
 with the possession of it. A moderate collection of 
 choice Tulips, of those beautiful, those exquisitely 
 beautiful flowers, which are the pride and boast of 
 every amateur who grows them, could not be pur- 
 chased for a sum much less than one thousand 
 pounds, at the usual catalogue prices, nor obtained 
 and got together till after years of patient search and 
 unwearied labour. 
 
 The high prices that have for many years been 
 affixed to Tulips in the printed catalogues of our 
 florists are so deterring and repulsive of the fancy, 
 that persons with a taste and fondness for this flower 
 are afraid to indulge and enter into it. Those prices 
 are generally rated nearly one-half higher than they 
 may be bought at, both here and in Holland; this 
 has a bad effect, and wears the appearance of impo- 
 
THE TULIP. 175 
 
 sition, and beyond doubt prevents a more extensive 
 culture of them. 
 
 The Tulip, according to Gesner, is a native of 
 Cappadocia, a province of Natolia, or Asia Minor, 
 though some others affirm that it grew spontaneously, 
 and was common to most of the islands in the Le- 
 vant, or Eastern Mediterranean Sea. It was intro- 
 duced into England in the year 1577, where it has 
 been found to increase freely, and to grow in the 
 open ground without any extraordinary degree of 
 care. 
 
 We are indebted to this part of the world both for 
 some of our choicest fruits as well as flowers as, for 
 instance, apples, cherries, peaches, plums, quinces, 
 and some peculiar sorts of grapes. We have re- 
 ceived from thence some of our most beautiful lilies 
 and irises ; for what is finer than the white lily and 
 the scarlet martagon, or more curious than the Iris 
 Susiana? The musk and damask roses, and the 
 greater part of odoriferous shrubs, were brought 
 from thence. 
 
 The inconstancy of the seed of the Tulip has mul- 
 
176 
 
 THE TULIP. 
 
 tiplied its varieties beyond all calculation, though a 
 bulb raised from seed will hardly ever break into its 
 true colours under seven years ; he, therefore, that 
 wishes to add to that variety, has many years to wait 
 of patient, though anxious expectation, before his 
 wish can be gratified. 
 
 The fresh spirit that has been infused into the 
 cultivators of flow r ers, since our return to peace and 
 to peaceful pursuits, has induced many to try to raise 
 a fresh set of breeders, and to sow seed annually that 
 has been saved from fine flowers. The enthusiastic 
 florist overlooks every difficulty; eager with hope, 
 and ardent in the pursuit, he anticipates success, 
 and his perseverance effects it. After three years of 
 application, he will nearly have accomplished his 
 object : he will then have a succession of bulbs, and 
 be gratified every succeeding year with the appear- 
 ance of bloom, and the production of new varieties 
 as they break into colour. The most gratifying and 
 complete success has attended the labours of Mr. 
 Carter, of Foxgrove, Wiltshire ; of a Mr. Austen, a 
 Mr. Strong, a Mr. Lawrence, and a Mr. Goldham, 
 
THE TULIP. 177 
 
 who have raised from seed, and matured and broke 
 into colour, perhaps some of the finest Tulips in the 
 country. Mr. Clarke, of Croydon, a scientific and 
 experienced florist, has the best breeders in the king- 
 dom, raised from the seed of Louis, Charbonniere, 
 Davey's Trafalgar, &c., with finely-formed cups and 
 clear bottoms ; they are in very high repute among 
 florists. Let others persevere, and they will have 
 the same success. No great skill or art is required ; 
 time, patience, and perseverance are alone wanting. 
 
 Mr. Clarke's mode of sowing the seed is as fol- 
 lows : 
 
 The best time for sowing the Tulip seed is the 
 latter end of January, or the beginning of February, 
 and in pots used for Carnations. Let the earth be 
 good, and put some lime-core at the bottom of the 
 pot, or the plants will be destroyed by the worm, 
 &c. &c. Cover the seed half an inch, and keep the 
 earth moist. When sown, put the pots under a light, 
 and keep them from severe frost. When the plants 
 are up, the pots may be set out, so as to have the 
 sun; but when the sun becomes powerful, they 
 
 I 5 
 
178 THE TULIP. 
 
 should be set so that they may have the morning 
 and evening sun only. Keep the plants in a grow- 
 ing state by watering occasionally, till the leaves are 
 entirely dead. Let the pots be then kept dry for a 
 time, and then take up the small bulbs and dry them 
 gradually as usual. The first time of planting them 
 may be the middle of October, or a little earlier, in 
 the open ground, and little more than two inches 
 deep. 
 
 The Tulip is generally divided into two classes 
 the early dwarf and the taller late flowering ; and 
 both are further distinguished according to their tints 
 and their peculiar mixture as Flakes, Bibloemens, 
 Bizarres, Rigauts, Baguets, &c., on grounds both of 
 white and yellow. 
 
 To describe their different and variegated colours 
 would be a work almost impossible ; I shall, there- 
 fore, proceed to point out the soil most suitable for 
 them, and the time and manner of planting. We 
 will suppose the bed is intended for your best sorts, 
 which must be situated in an open part of the gar- 
 den. The earth most proper for it is a fresh and 
 
THE TULIP. 179 
 
 rich loamy soil, of rather a sandy nature, which 
 should be dug twelve months, at least, before it is 
 used. Many florists are afraid of adding dung, lest 
 it should start the colours, and render the cups foul, 
 and therefore use none; but if you wish to blow 
 them of any size, you must, however, add a small 
 portion, taking care that it be well rotten and incor- 
 porated with the loam. Perhaps the safest way, after 
 all, is to dig a little dung in at the bottom of the bed, 
 a foot, at least, below the bulbs. 
 
 A very intelligent and old Tulip grower assured 
 me, that the best compost he could ever hit upon, 
 after many experiments, was the following ; the com- 
 ponent parts of which were : 
 
 | Rich yellow loam, 
 
 T Leaf mould, 
 
 Two year old horse-dung, 
 
 i- Sea sand. 
 
 The bed was dug two feet deep. 
 
 The usual time of planting them, according to 
 the ' Florist's Calendar,' near London, is the Lord 
 Mayor's Day, which is the 9th of November-: the 
 
180 THE TULIP. 
 
 distance between the rows should be nine inches, and 
 from bulb to bulb in the row seven, the depth four. 
 
 After the bed is lined and marked out, the most 
 simple method of planting them is, to get a blunted 
 dibber, with a circular mark round it, or a nail driven 
 in it, at the distance of about five inches from the 
 end, which will direct you how deep you are to make 
 the holes, into each of which you are to put a little 
 sea or river sand, before you set the bulbs in ; this 
 helps to keep them dry in the winter, as the rain- 
 water passes through it, and improves likewise their 
 coat or external skin. It is not customary to give 
 them water in any stage of their growth ; as soon as 
 they are out of flower, break off the seed cup, to 
 encourage the growth of the bulb. 
 
 Van Oosten, whom I mentioned before, says, 
 ' The florist who wishes to observe proper arrange- 
 ( ment of height, and a pleasing mixture and variety 
 ' in the bed, should have a box of convenient length 
 ' and breadth, to put as many tulips in as his bed will 
 '* contain, and this box must be divided into as many 
 f compartments as bulbs ; which are to be put in the 
 
THE TULIP. 181 
 
 ' same order in the box as they are to be set 
 'in the bed; and when they are taken up, to be 
 ' replaced in the box as before.' This plan is at 
 once simple and convenient, and I believe generally 
 adopted. The bulbs, he says, must be taken up 
 every year, or they will degenerate and come to 
 nothing; and if transplanted every year into fresh 
 ground, that has been turned three or four times, 
 they are the better for it in every respect. 
 
 Persons who have valuable collections are in the 
 habit of hooping them over in very wet and in very 
 sharp frosty weather, and of covering them during 
 such periods with mats, yet avail themselves of every 
 opportunity to give air. Heavy hail-storms in par- 
 ticular must be guarded against. The same precau- 
 tion against bleak, chilling easterly winds in February 
 and March ought to be adopted as is recommended 
 by the Dutch florist in the treatment of his Hyacinths 
 at the same season. Those winds chill and stagnate 
 the sap, arrest the progress of vegetation, and do 
 infinite mischief every way. 
 
 To bloom Tulips in perfection, an erection ought 
 
182 THE TULIP. 
 
 to be raised over them, and covered with stout Scotch 
 sheeting, reaching to the ground, to be drawn up and 
 let down with pulleys : by doing this you may keep 
 them in high condition for three weeks, during which 
 time you will have a full opportunity of gratifying 
 your friends with a view ; for the true enjoyment of 
 every pleasure is to share it with them. 
 
 I conceive it unnecessary to mention, that if you 
 wish to preserve the beauty of their blossoms, you 
 must protect them against the sun, rain, and wind ; 
 at the same time, you must allow them all the air 
 possible, lest the stems be drawn up weak, and so 
 rendered unable to support the cups. 
 
 The careful florist frequently runs a small cord 
 along the rows, and fastens the stems to it, just below 
 the cup, with green-coloured worsted : this has no 
 unpleasant appearance. 
 
 The bulbs must be taken up every year ; for, if 
 they are suffered to remain two years together in the 
 ground, they become foul, and break into small in- 
 crease, so that it will be two or three years before 
 they can recover their size, and produce any good 
 blossoms. 
 
THE TULIP. 183 
 
 As soon as the stems are nearly withered away, 
 take up the bulbs on a cloudy day, place them in 
 shallow wooden boxes, or on boarded floors, to dry, 
 and let them have sun and air. Brick or stone floors 
 are fatal to them; they will contract a dampness, 
 and a mildew that will destroy them. Let them be 
 arranged singly, and not one upon another. I have 
 seen a quantity of common Tulips thrown into a 
 hamper with a lid over when taken up, and in forty- 
 eight hours they have heated and rotted, and bred 
 maggots. 
 
 After the fibres are completely withered, rub them 
 off gently, and pluck the dead stem from the bulb ; 
 then put them away in some dry place till the plant- 
 ing season again comes round. These are all the 
 directions which I conceive necessary for the culture 
 of the Tulip. 
 
184 
 
 THE TULIP. 
 
 The following short Catalogue contains a few of 
 the most valuable Sorts. 
 
 ROSE-COLOURED TULIPS. 
 
 Andromeda 
 
 Altesse 
 
 Amaryllis 
 
 Amadis 
 
 Bathsheba 
 
 Bacchus 
 
 Beeterer Brulante 
 
 Eclatante 
 
 La Brulante Eclatante 
 
 Buisson Ardent 
 
 Claudiana 
 
 Comte de Vergennes 
 
 Cerise Superieure 
 
 Palmyre 
 
 Eudonie 
 
 Lambelle 
 
 Clio 
 
 Calista 
 
 Daviana 
 
 Elizabeth 
 
 Henriette 
 
 Imperiale 
 
 Juno 
 
 Lord Colchester 
 Lavinia 
 
 Madame Catalani 
 Maria Theresa 
 Maria Louisa 
 Man on 
 Matilda 
 Minerva 
 Mercurius 
 Nannette 
 Ponceau Unique 
 
 . Tres-Blond 
 
 Reine des Cerises 
 Roi des Cerises 
 
 de Roses 
 
 Rose Cerise Blanche 
 
 Brillante 
 
 C amuse de Craix 
 
 Camuse 
 
 Primo Bien du Noir 
 
 Esther 
 
 William 
 
 Premiere 
 
THE TULIP. 
 
 185 
 
 Rose Primo 
 
 Hebe 
 
 Triomphe Royal 
 
 ^ Thalestris 
 Surpasse Ponceau Tres- 
 Blond 
 
 Surpasse Thalestris 
 La Tendresse 
 Toilette de la Reine 
 Vesta 
 Walworth 
 
 BIBLOEMEN. 
 
 Ambassadeur d'HolIande 
 
 Acapulca 
 
 Amiable Brunette 
 
 Abbe" de St. Michel 
 
 Belle Actrice 
 
 Blue Violet 
 
 Chaumont 
 
 Clarke's Euphrosyne 
 
 Comte de Saxe 
 
 Clitus 
 
 Constantia 
 
 Cramoisi Superb 
 
 Due de Florence 
 
 Duchess of Wellington 
 
 Directeur-General 
 
 David 
 
 Duchess of Clarence 
 
 Endymion 
 
 Imperatrix Florum 
 
 Franciscus Primus 
 
 Gloria Alborum 
 
 Grotius 
 
 Holmes's King 
 
 Josephine 
 
 Louis XVI. 
 
 Ly sander 
 
 L'Impe'ratrice de Maroc 
 
 Leonard 
 
 La Belle Duchesse de 
 Parma 
 
 La Mere Brune Incompa- 
 rable 
 
 La Charbonniere 
 
 Cornwallis 
 
 Ly sander Noir 
 
 Majestueuse 
 
 Magnifique 
 
 Prince Souverain 
 
 Princess Charlotte's Ceno- 
 taph 
 
186 
 
 THE TULIP. 
 
 Perle Blanche 
 Prince de Conde 
 Hoi de Siam 
 Reine de Violets 
 
 de Sheba 
 
 de Fleurs 
 
 Rubens 
 
 Sang de Boeuf 
 
 Superbe en Noir 
 Scipio 
 Selina 
 
 Transparent Noir 
 Violet Alexandre 
 
 Superbe 
 
 Washington 
 
 BIZARRES. 
 
 Ariadne 
 
 Alfred 
 
 Abercrombie 
 
 Brutus 
 
 Buonaparte 
 
 Bugby's Hector 
 
 Bizarre Eclatante 
 
 Commander-in-Chief 
 
 Captain White 
 
 Cenotaph 
 
 Charbonnier Extra 
 
 Cimon 
 
 Count Platoff 
 
 Castrum Doloris 
 
 Catafalque (Old Dutch) 
 
 Superbe 
 
 Davey's Trafalgar 
 Duke of York 
 
 Etna 
 Eucharis 
 Earl Chatham 
 Feu en Feu 
 Godfrey's Sir Vincent 
 Gloria Mundi 
 Groland 
 Hector 
 
 Holmes's Regent 
 Heroine 
 Leopoldina 
 Louisa 
 
 Laurence's Duke of Cla- 
 rence 
 Lord Hill 
 Lord Wellington 
 Pluto 
 Polyhymnia 
 
THE TULIP. 
 
 187 
 
 Milo 
 
 Mon Amie 
 
 Mizraim 
 
 Masonia 
 
 Merveille d'Europe 
 
 Necker 
 
 Nicanor 
 
 Nonpareille 
 
 Optimus (Button's) 
 
 Pompe Funebre 
 
 Prince Waterloo 
 
 Rex Mundi 
 
 Roi de Navarre 
 
 San Josef 
 
 Sir George Dackett 
 
 Surpasse Catafalque 
 
 Suwarrow 
 
 S emir amis 
 
 Vulcan 
 
 Walworth 
 
 Zeno 
 
( 188 ) 
 
 OF THE HYACINTH. 
 
 ' Suave rubens Hyacinthus.' VIRGIL. 
 
 IN the former edition of this book,, I omitted all 
 notice of the Hyacinth, because, being very little 
 conversant with the culture of it, I did not consider 
 myself competent to give any directions respecting 
 it. I now beg, to offer some practical observations 
 upon the treatment of this flower, which have been 
 communicated to me by a gentleman, who, having 
 occasion to visit Holland in the spring of 1821, spent 
 a few days at Haarlem, when the Hyacinths were in 
 flower, in a manner, as he reports, the most agree- 
 able and gratifying. He is a great admirer of the 
 flower-garden, and of an inquisitive turn of mind, 
 that prompts him to explore any subject thoroughly 
 to which he turns his attention. I shall endeavour 
 to detail these observations in that conversational 
 
THE HYACINTH. 189 
 
 mode as they took place between him and the Dutch 
 florists ; and as to the matter, it will speak for itself. 
 To me, at least, it appeared particularly interesting, 
 and if it fail of exciting interest here, it will be en- 
 tirely owing to my inability to do justice to the report. 
 In the successful culture of this flower the Dutch 
 florists pride themselves more than in that of any 
 other, the Tulip not even excepted, and from the 
 immense yearly sale of which they derive a consi- 
 derable profit, not only from this country, but I may 
 safely say from every state in Europe. No words 
 can express the self-complacency and satisfaction 
 which a Dutch florist feels in a fine sun-shining 
 morning in April, while exhibiting to some foreign 
 florist or traveller his spacious and richly-adorned 
 beds of this highly-perfumed flower, to him at once 
 a source of profit and of pleasure : his natural phlegm 
 and indifference seem to have vanished, and that 
 cold, reserved cast of national character to be laid 
 aside ; pleasure sparkles in his eyes, increased, no 
 doubt, by the expectation of touching some fifty or 
 a hundred of your florins. The spectacle is truly 
 
190 THE HYACINTH. 
 
 grand and magnificent; the order and arrangement 
 admirable; and the fragrance powerful. Rows of 
 red and yellow ; purple and white of various shades 
 follow in succession; and whole acres are covered 
 with an immense mass of bloom. 
 
 ( Can you produce anything equal to this in Eng- 
 land ? ' demanded Mynheer Bloemist, with a smile 
 of exultation ; adding at the same time, ( you should 
 study and adopt our method of cultivation.' My 
 friend returned for answer, ' I fear your most ap- 
 proved mode of culture would not avail us much in 
 England, without your soil and saline atmosphere, 
 both of which seem so suitable and congenial to the 
 growth of this flower.' 
 
 ' Your observation is good,' replied Mynheer ; 
 ' but do not infer from thence that our care and 
 culture are nothing, or that our pains to improve the 
 soil is attended with no expense or trouble.' 
 
 e Your soil,' resumed my friend, ' has been de- 
 scribed to me as belonging to that sort which is 
 called alluvial namely, a mixture of mud, sand, 
 and other earths, which is generally left and depo- 
 
THE HYACINTH. 191 
 
 sited in low lands after the subsiding of some vast 
 overflowing torrent or inundation, and that it bears 
 a great resemblance to that of Lower Egypt.' 
 
 f Our country,' replied Mynheer, f is for the most 
 part naturally poor and barren. It may resemble 
 that of Egypt in some particulars, viz. its low situa- 
 tion and sandy earth ; but it is not yearly enriched 
 with the fertilizing slime, and mud and soil deposited 
 by the inundation of the Nile, which is said to be 
 caused by periodical rains that fall in Nubia and 
 Abyssinia; there a hot sun in an unclouded atmos- 
 phere seems to impart birth and maturity to vege- 
 table productions almost at the same instant; so 
 rapid is the growth, and so well matured the fruits 
 and grain; there corn, and rice, and flax, sugar- 
 canes, vines, figs, and dates, melons, gourds, and 
 cucumbers, the papyrus, the lotus, &c. flourish in the 
 greatest luxuriancy. Take away our bulbs, and 
 what else have we to boast of? Choice exotics do 
 not thrive well with us, nor are our fruits too richly 
 flavoured ; we suffer more from damps and fogs than 
 you do in England.' 
 
192 THE HYACINTH. 
 
 In the neighbourhood of Haarlem, in the province 
 of South Holland, the greatest and principal display 
 of hyacinths, tulips, jonquilles, irises, &c. is to be 
 seen; and my friend visited in succession the gar- 
 dens of George Voorhelm Schneevooght, of Henry 
 Cornelis, of Theodore Storm, of H. Polman Mooy, 
 and some others. 
 
 The Dutch florist has his tricks and finesse, as 
 well as the English : he would persuade you, that 
 when you have seen his collection, there is nothing 
 in Holland besides worth looking at; his are the 
 choicest, cheapest, and best; nor would he direct 
 you, if he could possibly avoid it, to the residence 
 or garden of any other florist. His tallies, or num- 
 ber-sticks, do not appear, and of course neither 
 offend the eye nor take from the effect. If you ask 
 him the name of a flower that has escaped his 
 memory for the moment, he stoops down, scratches 
 the ground with his fingers, feels for the concealed 
 tally, and draws it up; which having examined, he 
 replaces it again, and smooths the surface as it was 
 before. 
 
THE HYACINTH. 193 
 
 Petty robberies of flowers are not imfrequent 
 among them, and at certain periods they are under 
 the necessity of appointing watchmen to guard 
 them. Pray, Mynheer Bloemist/ inquired my 
 friend one day, ( what are the flowers you princi- 
 pally cultivate ? ' The answer he received was, 
 f the hyacinth, the tulip, the polyanthus-narcissus, 
 the ranunculus, the anemone, the crocus, the jon- 
 quil, the bulbous iris, the gladiolus, the amaryllis, 
 the rose, the lily, the dahlia, and a few other tube- 
 rous and bulbous-rooted plants, which seem by 
 nature suited to our soil and climate, and in which 
 our export trade in flowers principally consists. Of 
 late years we have not paid much attention to the 
 culture of the auricula, for in many parts of Hol- 
 land the situation is too low and humid for this 
 flower to continue in health long together. Of all 
 these our sale of hyacinths is by far the greatest : 
 of late years we have sent, a great many to the 
 United States of America, and to Russia ; but the 
 demand for them from England is regular and con- 
 stant : we have standing orders from the principal 
 
 K 
 
194 
 
 THE HYACINTH. 
 
 seedsmen and florists in London and other parts of 
 England, as well as from Edinburgh and Dublin, 
 which we execute yearly ; and this vast annual sup- 
 ply of hyacinths does not seem at all to affect the 
 demand in succeeding years.' 
 
 ' Well,, Mynheer Bloemist,' resumed my friend, 
 * I confess I feel exceedingly gratified with the sight 
 of your hyacinths ; their perfume, beauty, and rich- 
 ness of colour, far surpass any idea that my mind 
 could have formed respecting them. At the proper 
 season, which you say is October, I wish you to 
 forward me to England one hundred roots of double 
 and one hundred of single, including all your finest 
 varieties of yellow, white, red, and blue. I particu- 
 larly request to have the Bouquet Orange, Heroine, 
 Vainqueur, Favourite, and Pure d'Or included 
 among the yellow; Gloria Florum Suprema, Furius- 
 Camillus, A -la- Mode, and Anna Maria Schuur- 
 mans among the white; Catherine, Victorieuse, 
 Waterloo, Comte de la Coste, Maria Louisa, among 
 the red; and Bouquet Constant, Gloria Mundi, 
 Helicon, I'lmportante, and Pasquin among the 
 blue. 5 
 
THE HYACINTH. 195 
 
 ' Your commands shall be executed with fidelity/ 
 was the answer returned by Mynheer, accompanied 
 with a bow expressive of the obligation and favour 
 received. 
 
 ' Now, Mynheer, when I receive those bulbs in 
 England, I do not mean to be satisfied with one 
 year's bloom, and then cast them away; I intend to 
 try how far care and culture will assist me in pre- 
 serving them, and in preventing that degeneracy, 
 which our English gardeners say they so soon fall 
 into ; I shall therefore feel obliged to you for any 
 information upon this subject which you may be 
 disposed to impart, and upon which your experience 
 so well enables you to speak.' 
 
 ' You rate my poor abilities too highly, Sir/ 
 answered Mynheer ; ' and I fear you will be dis- 
 appointed in the information which you seem de- 
 sirous to obtain; for I have no particular methods 
 to communicate, no successful experiments to detail,, 
 which are not known and practised by us all. Our 
 soil round Haarlem is upon the whole poor and 
 sterile, consisting of nearly two-thirds sand to one 
 
 K 2 
 
196 THE HYACINTH. 
 
 of loam, of a light brown colour,, yet of considerable 
 depth; the nature of such a soil is of course light 
 and porous. Observe with what facility I can force 
 my arm into this fresh-dug quarter, nearly to the 
 shoulder, yet by compression and treading we can 
 render it close arid firm. It is from the application 
 of animal dungs that you behold it here discoloured 
 and of a dark appearance. Well rotten cow-dung 
 we find the best suited to such a soil, particularly in 
 that part of it in which we grow our hyacinths ; yet 
 we never suffer it to come in contact with the bulbs. 
 When we apply it, we trench it in, a foot below 
 them; we refresh the soil above with leaf-mould 
 from time to time, and with occasional dressings of 
 maiden mould, where the ground has been exhausted 
 by long culture. We have of late years applied 
 night-soil, dried and reduced to mould, with con- 
 siderable advantage : I have no hesitation in saying, 
 that the brightness and vividness of the colours have 
 been greatly increased thereby. There is one thing 
 in particular, which I wish you to observe with 
 minute attention : that is, not to cut the leaves off 
 
THE HYACINTH. 197 
 
 the plants, after they have done flowering; but to 
 suffer them to decay and die gradually, for the 
 health, strength, and size of the bulb for the suc- 
 ceeding year depend upon its storing up a proper 
 fund of sap, which you will in a great degree pre- 
 vent by cutting off the leaves when in a green state. 
 I recommend to you to cut down the flowering stem 
 as soon as the bloom has faded, but by no means to 
 deprive it of its leaves ; great injury is done to all 
 sorts of bulbs by this inconsiderate and unskilful 
 practice. Great care is also requisite in drying the 
 bulb, especially if May should be a rainy month ; 
 they will in that case require to be defended from 
 the excessive rain. About the beginning of June, 
 if the season has been dry and favourable, we begin 
 to take them up ; by that time the foliage has lost 
 its sap, and become dry and decayed ; we then cut 
 it off within an inch of the bulb, but touch not the 
 fibres. When this operation is finished, we replace 
 them on the bed upon their sides, in rows according 
 to the sorts, and cover them over about an inch 
 deep with sand ; this prevents the bulb from drying 
 
198 THE HYACINTH. 
 
 too fast and shrinking in substance. We suffer 
 them to remain here a fortnight longer, till the 
 fibres are dry and withered, and then consider them 
 ripe, and fit to be taken up for good. After having 
 carefully rubbed off the fibres, and any loose skins 
 hanging to t-hem, with a piece of soft woollen cloth, 
 w T e take them into the house or store-rooms, where 
 we arrange them in shallow boxes, one bulb deep, 
 and cover them over with dry sand, where they 
 remain till the planting season again comes round, 
 which is the latter end of October ; for if they were 
 placed several together, they would be apt to heat, 
 and liable to perish : such as are ordered and des- 
 tined for exportation, we select at this time, and 
 wrap up singly in paper. 
 
 ' Were I to give any particular directions for 
 forming the bed, I would recommend you, in the 
 first place, to select such part of the garden as lies 
 open and airy, with an exposure to the south or 
 south-west, and which is protected by some building 
 or fence on the north and east ; the soil should be 
 a good sandy loam, or, in absence thereof, fresh 
 
THE HYACINTH. 199 
 
 maiden earth, that has been dug six months at least 
 before you use it ; if twelve months, the better. To 
 be enriched and incorporated with decayed leaf- 
 mould, well rotten cow-dung, and river sand, in 
 something like the following quantities : 
 
 4 Barrows of maiden earth, 
 
 1 Do. well rotten cow-dung, 
 
 2 Do. leaf-mould, 
 
 2 Do. sea or river sand. 
 
 f If you have the opportunity of adding to this 
 one barrow of night-soil reduced to mould, no fitter 
 or better compost can possibly be put together, and 
 it will retain its strength and quality for two or three 
 years : the trouble and expense, I admit, are con- 
 siderable, but then you will be repaid by a fine 
 bloom and healthy bulbs. 
 
 ' If the subsoil be brick-earth or clay, which do 
 not easily discharge the falling rains, the bed should 
 be raised ten inches, at least, above the surface of 
 the ground, that the bulbs may sustain no damage 
 from them. Plant them four inches deep, and nine 
 inches apart every way, putting a little sand both 
 
200 THE HYACINTH. 
 
 below and above the bulb, which not only prevents 
 the approach of insects,, but acts as a drain around 
 it ; but if the subsoil consist of sand or sandy gravel,, 
 a stratum of four inches thick of rotten cow-dung 
 should be laid about a foot below the bulbs, which 
 will not only administer nourishment to the roots, 
 but preserve a cool bottom, in which they delight. 
 The bed should be hooped over, and mats thrown 
 on occasionally to keep off heavy and continued 
 rains, which sometimes fall in November, and are 
 followed by sharp frosts : these frosts are more liable 
 to injure the bulbs when the ground is saturated with 
 water than when it is moderately moist or dry ; slight 
 frosts and gentle rains do no injury. Some florists 
 with small collections will cover the beds on the 
 approach of severe weather with old tan, to the 
 depth of six inches, which they remove in general, if 
 the weather permits, about the middle of February, 
 towards the end of which month, as well as in March, 
 when vegetation is in action, and the leaves begin to 
 shoot forth, a cold, bleak, easterly wind too frequently 
 prevails a wind, as all travellers agree, congenial to 
 
THE HYACINTH. 201 
 
 neither animal nor vegetable life in any part of the 
 globe ; in which case, a protection of upright hurdles, 
 covered with mats, should be afforded, to arrest and 
 turn aside the withering and chilling blast. Tulips 
 require the same precaution. Except on these par- 
 ticular occasions, the bed should be exposed and 
 open, and have a free circulation of air, without 
 which no plants can thrive and continue healthy 
 long together. 
 
 ' About the commencement of April, in most 
 seasons, these flowers begin to show colour; some 
 are earlier than others, as is the case with most 
 species of flowering plants ; their stems then require 
 to be tied loosely to sticks, to keep them upright,, 
 and to support the weight of their bells ; for if the 
 weight does not break them, yet any sudden gust of 
 wind would snap them in two, from their extremely 
 brittle and succulent nature. It is necessary to pro- 
 tect the blossoms from the rays of the sun, if you 
 wish to preserve their beauty and lustre ; for three 
 days' exposure, even to an April sun, would greatly 
 impair their tints, and deaden the brilliancy of their 
 
 K 5 
 
202 THE HYACINTH. 
 
 colours. Examine only the rich and glowing tint of 
 the damask-rose at five o'clock in the morning that 
 
 o 
 
 has opened in the night, and examine the same 
 again at ten, and you will be struck with the change 
 that five hours' sun has made. And it is no less 
 necessary to guard against any sudden return of 
 frost at this season, which not unfrequently occurs ; 
 the covering of stout canvas ought to be let down close 
 to the ground, and mats thrown over beside ; for the 
 injury done to the bloom by frost is more sudden and 
 serious than that done by the sun. By attending to 
 these two necessary precautions, I have no doubt but 
 that you will be enabled to preserve the bloom in 
 high order and beauty for three weeks or more. 
 
 ' These, Sir, are my directions for the culture of 
 the Hyacinth ; any further minute detail I conceive 
 unnecessary, as your own good sense and judgment 
 will supply the deficiency. I am not aware that I 
 have omitted anything essential. As to the plan we 
 pursue in raising new varieties from seed, you have 
 already inferred that you have no wish for me to 
 enter upon that subject, but that you will be content 
 
THE HYACINTH. 203 
 
 to leave the raising of seedlings in the hands of the 
 Dutch florist, with all its care, trouble, and advan- 
 tages/ 
 
 ( Allow me, Mynheer,' rejoined my friend, c to 
 return you my hearty thanks for this excellent bota- 
 nical lecture, if I may so term it, to which I have 
 listened with peculiar satisfaction; if I fail in the 
 successful culture of my bulbs, with these clear me- 
 thodical directions before me, I shall most certainly 
 attribute it to my unskilful application of them.' 
 
 With a hearty shake of the hand my friend and 
 Mynheer Bloemist then separated, perfectly satisfied 
 with each other. 
 
 This flower is certainly not so extensively culti- 
 vated among us as many others that are less beau- 
 tiful and inviting ; this arises, I am inclined to think, 
 from the vulgar notion which, by the bye, may be, 
 after all, a vulgar error that the bulbs are hardly 
 worth cultivating a second year in Britain, and are, 
 therefore, like the Guernsey Lily, cast away as 
 useless. 
 
 I have not the least doubt but that in many parts 
 
204 THE HYACINTH. 
 
 of England, were the experiment fairly made, the 
 hyacinth might be cultivated with success ; the spot 
 chosen ought to be situated near to the sea-coast, 
 and the soil a light sandy earth of tolerable depth. 
 I am told this flower thrives well in Devonshire ; 
 and there are many florists, within the circle of my 
 acquaintance, who yearly bloom from a hundred to 
 two hundred bulbs ; and, according to the account 
 given by them, with tolerable success in general, 
 both as regards the fineness of the blossom and the 
 condition of the bulb when taken up. There is a 
 rich tract of land by the side of the Humber, and 
 along the banks of the Trent in Yorkshire, where 
 the finest kidney potatoes in all England are/aised, 
 with clear skins, free from all speck and scab ; bulbs 
 of all sorts, I am satisfied, would thrive in this soil, 
 and that they w^ould rise with clear skins and silvery 
 coats, equal to those imported from Holland. 
 
 I hold it the extreme of folly in any one, who has 
 ,a garden, to cast away the roots which have flowered 
 in glasses, much less those in pots ; the thousands 
 that are suffered to perish in this way every year in 
 
THE HYACINTH. 205 
 
 London is astonishing : one year's accumulation of 
 these cast-away bulbs would produce an ample stock 
 for an experimental florist to commence an essay 
 with. If by chance a few bulbs perish in the bed 
 during winter, care must be taken to make a reserve 
 against such loss, by planting a dozen bulbs or so in 
 pots to supply their places, by plunging the pots in 
 the ground, and thereby keep up the order and uni- 
 formity of the bed ; such as are not wanted may be 
 taken into the house, and forced into flower early. 
 The usual mode which the London florists pursue in 
 keeping these bulbs in pots through the winter, is to 
 plunge them in sand or coal-ashes up to the rim, and 
 to cover them with six inches of old tan : in Febru- 
 ary they begin to remove some from this repository 
 into the green-house to force ; and so continue to do, 
 from time to time, as they want them. I know of no 
 better method. 
 
 The following flowers, with the prices, are copied 
 from a Dutch Catalogue : the gulden or guilder or 
 Dutch florin are of the same value, Is. $d. English ; 
 a stiver 1 - Q d. English. 
 
206 THE HYACINTH. 
 
 DOUBLE HYACINTHS. 
 
 YELLOW. 
 
 Guild. Stiv. 
 
 Bouquet Orange 2 
 
 Chrysolora 6 
 
 Due de Berry 10 
 
 Heroine , 15 
 
 L'Or Vegetable 6 
 
 Louis d'Or 12 
 
 Ophir 6 
 
 Pure d'Or 3 
 
 Vainqueur 2 
 
 WHITE. 
 
 Aardshertogin 12 
 
 Admiral Zoutman 4 
 
 A-la-Mode 10 
 
 Altesse Royale 6 
 
 A. M. Schuurmans 1 
 
 Blanche Fleur 4 
 
 Bailluw Van Zuidwyk 4 
 
 Baron Van Wassenaar 6 
 
 Beautd sans Pareille 10 
 
 Tendre 10 
 
 Belle Forme. . 4 
 
THE HYACINTH. 207 
 
 Guild. Stir. 
 
 Bijou des Amateurs 6 
 
 CceurTendre 4 
 
 Coeur Aimable 4 
 
 Constantia Elizabeth 4 
 
 Couronne Blanche 3 
 
 Dageraad 3 
 
 Diana Van Ephese 10 
 
 Due de Berry 6 
 
 DonGratuit 6 
 
 Due de Penthievre 6 
 
 Furius Camillus 1 10 
 
 Gloria Florum 1 6 
 
 Grande Blanche Imperiale 15 
 
 Grand Monarque 12 
 
 Gilde Vryheid 4 
 
 Hermione 4 
 
 Illustre Beaute 6 
 
 Juno 10 
 
 Madame de St. Simon 10 
 
 Minerva 6 
 
 Nannette 6 
 
 Sphaera mundi 12 
 
 Reviseur General 6 
 
 Sultan Achmet 8 
 
 Staten General 10 
 
 Violet Superbe 4 
 
 Virgo 6 
 
208 THE HYACINTH. 
 
 RED. 
 
 Guild. Stiv. 
 
 Augustus Rex 5 
 
 Boerhaven 6 
 
 Bruidskleed 6 
 
 Catherine Victorieuse 3 
 
 Comte de la Coste 3 
 
 Couronne d'Or 1 
 
 Delice du Printems 8 
 
 Diademe de Flore 6 
 
 Duchesse de Parme 8 
 
 Eleonora 6 
 
 Emilia Galotti 8 
 
 Flos Sanguineus 8 
 
 Grootvorst 8 
 
 Hugo Grotius 6 
 
 Illustre Pyramidale 
 
 II Pastor Fido 4 
 
 La Delicatesse 8 
 
 La Superbe Royale 4 
 
 L'honneur d' Amsterdam 10 
 
 Maria Louisa c ; 1 10 
 
 Madame Zoutman 12 
 
 Marquise de la Coste 1 
 
 Perruque Quarre 8 
 
 Phoenix 4 
 
 Rex Rubrorum 8 
 
 Rose agreable 5 
 
 Rose d'Ispahan 12 
 
THE HYACINTH. 209 
 
 Guild. Stiv. 
 
 Rose Illustre 
 
 , Mignon 6 
 
 Sceptre 1 
 
 Rouge Charmant 6 
 
 Rozenkrans Van Flora 6 
 
 Roxane. ...., 12 
 
 Sans Rival 8 
 
 Soleil Royal 10 
 
 Superbissima 10 
 
 Temple van Apollo 6 
 
 Waterloo . ... 1 6 
 
 BLUE. 
 
 A-la-Mode 6 
 
 Alcibiacles 6 
 
 Bouquet Constant 3 
 
 Bucentaurus -. 6 
 
 Bleu Fonce 6 
 
 Cceruleus Imperialis 4 
 
 Drusus 8 
 
 Directeur General 8 
 
 Due de Luxembourg 8 
 
 de Normandie 8 
 
 de Bronswic 6 
 
 Flora Perfecta 6 
 
 Globe Celeste.. 12 
 
210 THE HYACINTH. 
 
 Guild. Stir. 
 
 Terrestre 6 
 
 Graaf Floris 8 
 
 Grandeur Triomphante 12 
 
 Grand Gris-de-Lin 10 
 
 Gloria Mundi 3 
 
 Helicon 3 
 
 Incomparable Azur 4 
 
 Keizer Tiberius 4 
 
 Kroon van Indien 8 
 
 La Bien Aimee 4 
 
 La Gentilesse 1 
 
 L'Amitie 4 
 
 L'lllustre 8 
 
 L'Importante 4 
 
 La Ville de Haarlem 8 
 
 Mirabeau 12 
 
 Mon Bijou 8 
 
 Ami 6 
 
 Negro Superbe 12 
 
 Nigritienne 6 
 
 Olden Barneveld 5 
 
 Parmenio 8 
 
 Passe ne plus ultra 1 
 
 Pasquin 12 
 
 Porceleine Sceptre 6 
 
 Velours Pourpre 3 
 
THE HYACINTH. 
 
 211 
 
 SINGLE HYACINTHS. 
 
 THE names of a few of the finest, the prices of which 
 run nearly the same as for the double. 
 YELLOW. 
 
 Couleur de Jonquille 
 Pluie d'Or 
 
 Prince d'Orange 
 Toison d'Or 
 
 Armenia 
 Belle Amazone 
 Hercules 
 
 WHITE. 
 
 Melpomene* 
 Premier noble Thais 
 
 RED. 
 
 Actrice 
 
 Aimable Rosette 
 Aimable Louise 
 Fleur des Dames 
 I/Eclair 
 
 L'Eclatante 
 
 Mignon 
 
 Princesse d'Esterhazy 
 
 Regina Rubrorum Thalia 
 
 Vuurlam 
 
 BLUE. 
 
 Alexander Niger 
 
 Buonaparte 
 
 Dolphin 
 
 Fortunatus 
 
 Colbert 
 
 General Hoche 
 
 Konings 
 Grande Vedette 
 La Modeste 
 Nonpareille 
 Oron dates 
 Staten General 
 
( 212 ) 
 
 OF THE ROSE. 
 
 ' Rosa mea.' PLAUTUS. 
 
 ' Rose thou art the sweetest flower 
 That ever drank the amber shower.' 
 T. MOORE. 
 
 { I know a hank whereon the wild Thyme blows, 
 Where Oxlip and the nodding Violet grows, 
 O'er-canopied with luscious Woodbine, 
 With sweet Musk Roses, and with Eglantine : 
 There sleeps Titania.' 
 
 SHAKSPEAUE'S Midsummer Night's Dream. 
 
 To say anything in praise of the attractive beauty 
 and sweetness of the Rose, would be not only to in- 
 sult the good sense and good taste of my readers, but 
 absolutely to imply the want of both ; suffice it then 
 to say, that the Rose is a universal favourite ; and 
 that in no part of the world, torrid, temperate, or 
 frigid, but e nascuntur rosae,' of some description or 
 other. Among the ancients the Rose was conse- 
 crated to Venus ' flos Veneri sacer' and was con- 
 sidered by them the harbinger of spring. 
 
/*qt>;i rJWljtfiifa'r Trent her &C C ,4 ye Jfurta S.nr.-f 
 

THE ROSE. 213 
 
 ' Cum. rosam viderit, tune incipere ver arbitrator.' 
 
 CICERO. 
 
 The Roman guests at feasts and entertainments 
 adorned their heads with it, as < convivae rosis coro- 
 nabantur;' thus Horace: 
 
 ' Mitte sectari, rosa quo locorum 
 sera moretur.' 
 
 Again : 
 
 4 Hue vina, et unguenta, et nimium breves 
 Flores amaense ferre jube rosae.* 
 
 And again in another place : 
 
 ( Cur nou sub alta vel platano, vel hac 
 Firm jacentes sic temere, et rosa 
 
 Canos odorati capillos 
 Dum licet, Assyriaque nardo 
 Potamus uncti ? Dissipat Evius 
 Curas edaces.' 
 
 Persons when probably ill and anxious to live, 
 used to express themselves thus, ' I hope I shall live 
 to gather roses another year :' 
 
 ' Alias tractare rosas.' JUVENAL. 
 
 Ovid makes mention of ' ameena rosaria; 1 and Vir- 
 gil, while living in retirement at Parthenope, in the 
 south of Italy, which was soon after pulled down, 
 and rebuilt under the name of Neapolis, or new city, 
 now called Naples : 
 
214 THE ROSE. 
 
 4 Illo Virgilium me tempore dulcis alebat 
 Parthenope, studiis florentem ignobilis oti ;' 
 
 intimated an intention which he then entertained of 
 writing upon horticulture, and the rose in particular, 
 as cultivated in gardens at Paestum in Lucania, 
 which he mentions thus towards the end of the fourth 
 Georgic : 
 
 ' Forsan et pingues hortos quae cura colendi 
 Ornaretj canerem, biferique rosaria Paesti.' 
 
 Ausonius, likewise a perfect amateur of the rose, 
 and who wrote upon it, an author, by-the-bye, that 
 I have not been able to lay my hand on, says, 
 
 ( Vidi paestano gaudere rosaria cultu.' 
 
 The roses principally noticed by Latin authors 
 are, the rosa Damascena, or white rose of Damascus; 
 rosa Milesia, or red rose of two varieties, rubra et 
 purpurea; rosa provincialis, called also Batavia, or 
 the large Provence, which was first discovered in the 
 neighbourhood of Toulouse ; rosa paestana, or bas- 
 tard musk, which flowered twice in the year, in May 
 and again in September ; rosa moschata vel odorata, 
 the African and Asiatic musk rose ; rosa holoserica, 
 or velvet rose : there were also the hyberna, or early 
 
THE ROSE. 215 
 
 flowering ; the scrotina, or late flowering ; and the 
 Grecian luteola, or yellow. 
 
 The varieties of the rose are now extremely 
 numerous ; many are the native or natural produc- 
 tions of foreign countries, and many are the produc- 
 tions of European florists from seed. 
 
 The Scotch roses, that have been raised from seed 
 within these few years past, are exceedingly fine 
 and delicate, and make a great addition to the flower- 
 garden. 
 
 I might have remarked before, that the rose-gar- 
 dens of Psestum were as celebrated in the time of 
 Augustus, in honour of whom the month of August 
 was named, as those of Mr. Lee of Hammersmith^ 
 or Mr. Loddige of Hackney, in our time. In his 
 reign literature was encouraged, and the liberal 
 arts and sciences began to flourish ; and this love of 
 letters and of the arts was soon followed by a refine- 
 ment of taste and manners, that shortly after brought 
 into use all the expensive embellishments, as well as 
 the more elegant conveniences of life : the simple 
 farm-house and the plain cabbage-garden of their 
 
216 THE ROSE. 
 
 ancestors were changed into splendid villas and mag- 
 nificent gardens, adorned with fountains, statues, 
 and flowering shrubs and plants. An indecent statue 
 of Priapus was stuck up in all gardens, as ( Hortus 
 custos.' 
 
 My object in introducing this flower into my trea- 
 tise, is for the more immediate purpose, than any 
 other I had in view, of presenting a select catalogue 
 of the finest sorts, distinguished alike for varied tints, 
 fragrance, and beauty, and which will, in fact, form 
 a most complete and magnificent rosary, well deserv- 
 ing of cultivation. 
 
 Rose-trees grow best in a light rich loam, and 
 require to be well pruned every year, to enable them 
 to throw out strong flowering buds : these buds are 
 very often destroyed in the spring by a small, dark 
 red grub, which feeds upon them, folds itself up in 
 the leaves, and then changes into a moth chrysalis. 
 In the seasons they prevail, if not sought for and 
 destroyed, there will be but few early Roses, the 
 only chance remaining will be in the formation of 
 fresh summer buds. They are also liable to be 
 
THE ROSE. 217 
 
 injured by a small, light green caterpillar, which is 
 also found to infest the apple blossom and the young 
 forming fruit, and which feeds upon it. When the 
 trees are blighted with honey-dew, or infested with 
 the green fly, they ought to be washed with strong 
 soap-suds, or cleansed with a soft brush dipped in a 
 lye of lime-water, sulphur, and tobacco. 
 
 Propagation is by dividing the roots, by budding 
 on the briar, and by layers laid down the beginning 
 of July. As a skilful gardener is not always at 
 hand to perform this last-named method of propa- 
 gation, I will endeavour briefly to describe it, and 
 which some of my readers, perhaps, may be inclined 
 to perform themselves. 
 
 Select the strong young shoots that have been 
 formed the same year ; then, with a sharp budding 
 or other thin-bladed knife, begin a quarter of an 
 inch below the joint, and make an incision of three- 
 quarters of an inch in length on the side next the 
 ground, up the middle of the shoot; after which, cut 
 off transversely the nib or extremity of the tongue 
 just below the joint; then move the ground, and 
 
 L 
 
218 THE ROSE. 
 
 open a place three inches deep, in which, after hav- 
 ing first put a little sand, or sand and fresh loam 
 mixed, fix and peg down the layer to that depth, 
 and after giving the tongue a little twist or turn on 
 one side, to keep the cleft open, close the earth tight 
 round it. When the whole is performed, give the 
 layers a gentle watering to settle the mould, and 
 which ought to be repeated from time to time, to 
 promote the striking of the new fihres, and to keep 
 the mother-plant in a healthy, growing state. The 
 layers, in most cases, will be fit to remove the spring 
 following ; but such as are not well rooted had better 
 remain till the succeeding autumn. The same mccle 
 of operation may be applied to most shrubs ; and 
 take care to cover that part of the shoot only with 
 earth which is pegged down, the other part of it, 
 connected with the stool or parent plant, must lie 
 uncovered. 
 
THE ROSE. 
 
 219 
 
 White Monthly 
 Double White 
 White Provence 
 
 Catalogue of Roses. 
 
 WHITE. 
 
 White Damask 
 Double Musk 
 Rosa Banksia 
 
 Rose Blanche de Belgique 
 
 Red Moss 
 White Moss 
 Single Moss 
 
 MOSS. 
 
 Scarlet Moss 
 
 Blush Moss 
 
 Mossy Rose de Meaux 
 
 Double White Scotch 
 
 Red Scotch 
 
 Blush Scotch 
 
 Scotch Provence 
 
 SCOTCH. 
 
 Double Marble Scotch 
 
 Purple Scotch 
 
 Pale Yellow Scotch 
 
 Fairy Scotch Rose 
 
 BLUSH. 
 
 Great Maiden's Blush 
 Lesser Maiden's Blush 
 Celestial 
 Blush Provence 
 
 Belgique 
 
 Early Blush 
 
 Shailer's Provence 
 Dutch Provence 
 Imperial Blush 
 Blush Mignon 
 Brunswick 
 Aurora 
 
 L2 
 
220 
 
 THE ROSE. 
 
 SWEET BRIARS. 
 
 Semi Double Sweet Briar 
 Double Sweet Briar 
 Manning's Blush Sweet 
 Briar 
 
 Royal Sweet Briar 
 Monstrous Sweet Briar 
 Mossy Sweet Briar 
 Double Tree Sweet Briar 
 
 Swiss Rose 
 
 Common Provence 
 
 Tree Preony Rose 
 
 Spongs 
 
 Italian 
 
 Dutch Tree 
 
 Red Monthly 
 
 RED. 
 
 Rose of Four Seasons 
 Red Mignon 
 Superb Red 
 Royal Red 
 Rose de Meaux 
 Rosa Bullata 
 
 BRIGHT RED. 
 
 Carmine 
 
 Proliferous Carmine 
 Fiery 
 Refulgent 
 Scarlet Provence 
 Rosa Pijestana 
 
 Bright Crumpled 
 
 Neapolitan 
 
 Mogul 
 
 Cluster 
 
 Superb Carmine 
 
 Tuscan 
 Triumphant 
 
 DARK. 
 
 Pluto 
 Burning Coal 
 
THE ROSE. 
 
 221 
 
 Mourning 
 
 Large Dark China 
 
 Castile 
 
 Negro 
 
 Black Frizzled 
 
 Mottled 
 
 Double Velvet 
 Mexican 
 
 Bright Purple 
 Royal Purple 
 Red and Violet 
 Favourite Purple 
 Blue Purple 
 
 PURPLE. 
 
 Light Purple 
 Grand Purple 
 Blue 
 
 and Purple 
 
 Mottled Purple 
 
 Single Yellow 
 
 YELLOW. 
 
 I Double Yellow 
 
 RED AND WHITE. 
 
 York and Lancaster 
 Rosa Mundi 
 
 Striped Mignon 
 
( 222 ) 
 
 OF GERANIUMS. 
 
 THE following select catalogue of geraniums * com- 
 prehends some of the newest,, rarest, and most ad- 
 mired varieties : 
 
 Dianthiflorum 
 
 Eximium 
 
 Baileyanum 
 
 Macranthon 
 
 Tricolour 
 
 Floridum 
 
 Pavonium 
 
 Daveyanum 
 
 Rubescens 
 
 Involucratum 
 
 Ardens 
 
 Nervosum 
 
 Hoareanum 
 
 Bicolour 
 
 Flammidum 
 
 Obscurum 
 
 Ignescens, Majus 
 
 Coriaceum 
 
 Sanguineum 
 
 Villosum 
 
 Dawsonianum 
 
 Thompsonianum 
 
 Reticulatum 
 
 Oblatum 
 
 Triumphans 
 
 Cordifolium Novum 
 
 Foliaceum, Majus 
 
 Pes Pelicanum 
 
 Crassicaule 
 
 Formosum 
 
 Fulgidum 
 
 Lumleyanum 
 
 Mooreanum 
 
 * Geraniums grow luxuriantly in my carnation compost. 
 
( 223 ) 
 
 OF THE GEORGINA. 
 
 THIS flower was introduced about the year 1804, 
 by Lady Holland, from Spain. It is a native of 
 Mexico, in South America,, the part from whence 
 potatoes were first brought to England by Sir 
 Walter Raleigh, in the year 1565. The roots are 
 susceptible of frost, and liable to be destroyed by 
 it; of course they must be taken up every year, 
 and kept in dry sand, with the crown uppermost. 
 It is propagated by dividing the roots; a single 
 tuber even will suffice, by cuttings and by seed. 
 In many instances it will sow itself, for plants very 
 frequently spring up on the spot where it has stood 
 the preceding year. It is now generally treated as 
 an annual, by sowing the seed in March, upon 
 heat ; the young plants are pricked out singly into 
 small pots, and kept in frames until May, when 
 they may be turned into the ground to flower in the 
 
224 THE GEORGINA. 
 
 autumn. To ensure an early bloom in the summer, 
 the old roots are planted in pots in March, and kept 
 in the green-house till all danger of the frost is past. 
 This flower,, from its great height and size, is too 
 large for a small flower-garden : half a dozen roots 
 are enough for a large one. It is best adapted to 
 fill up the vacancies in ornamental shrubberies, 
 where it makes a grand and magnificent appearance, 
 through the summer and autumn. The double 
 flowers are now most cultivated, for the finest 
 varieties of which we are indebted to the French; 
 their colours are white, crimson, scarlet, yellow, and 
 purple of different shades. 
 
( 225 ) 
 
 OF THE 
 
 RUSSIAN AND DANISH STOCKS. 
 
 OF all the flowers that have of late years been in- 
 troduced into England, none seem to give greater 
 pleasure than the different varieties of these annual 
 or ten week stocks; and none are sought after at this 
 moment with greater avidity : they consist of about 
 eighteen sorts, and form a splendid flower-garden 
 of themselves. The colours which I have noticed, 
 and which are thus described upon some packets of 
 the seed sent from Denmark : light red, tile red, dark 
 red or mahogany, ruby, scarlet, flesh-colour, peach 
 blossom, light ash, dark ash, lilac, blue, purple, mul- 
 berry, black, white, &c. Some of the plants have the 
 wall-flower leaf, and others the Brompton leaf. Be- 
 fore the introduction of these, we were acquainted only 
 with the scarlet, the purple, and the white. The seed 
 
 ought to be sown about the middle of September, 
 
 L 5 
 
226 RUSSIAN AND DANISH STOCKS. 
 
 and the young plants to be pricked out three or four 
 in small pots, and to be protected in frames through 
 the winter; these will flower early in the spring. 
 The seed may be sown again in March or April, for 
 plants to bloom in the summer. Some biennial or 
 winter stocks have also been introduced, but I have 
 yet had no opportunity of seeing them flower. In 
 mentioning these, I have no wish to underrate our 
 native stock, the Brompton, which in some situations 
 grows to an immense size, presenting one large mass of 
 bloom : the brilliant colour of the scarlet is the most 
 striking, but the purple and the white are equally 
 pleasing. The seed of the Brompton ought to be 
 sown some time in May, that the stalks may get 
 hard and woody to stand the winter; the careful 
 gardener, when in possession of a good double- 
 flowering scarlet, will not neglect to winter some of 
 the plants in pots, either in frames, green-houses, or 
 under hoops covered with mats, during any very- 
 hard frosts; for good and well-saved seed of this 
 stock is not always to be got. 
 
 If I may credit the testimony of a gardener of 
 
RUSSIAN AND DANISH STOCKS. 227 
 
 the name of Davis, who works for me occasionally, 
 and I have no reason to doubt his testimony, he 
 assures me, that about thirty years ago, during the 
 time of his apprenticeship to Mr. Mott, gardener to 
 the Duke of Bolton, at Hackwood, in Hampshire, 
 his Grace received from Germany, through the 
 medium of a domestic servant, whose father was a 
 gardener in that country, the same coloured stocks 
 as I have been describing ; they were considered a 
 great rarity, and were much admired, but they were 
 called Grecian stocks, the name they now go by in 
 France. The major part of them, he says, were 
 wall-leafed. 
 
 The annual stock is, I believe, originally a native 
 of Greece, and called ( cheiranthus,' or hand-flower, 
 probably from its being carried in the hand as a 
 nosegay, or making a handful of flowers. There is 
 no doubt, in my opinion, but that these stocks found 
 their way from Greece into Russia, Denmark, and 
 the north of Europe, and since our unrestricted in- 
 tercourse with the Continent, the seed of them has 
 reached England, bringing with it the name of the 
 
228 RUSSIAN AND DANISH STOCKS. 
 
 country from which it was imported. It is not, how- 
 ever, worth my while to cavil either about the name 
 or origin, for I give them a free welcome to the gar- 
 den ; and as for their recommendation and passport^ 
 they carry them with them. 
 
( 229 ) 
 
 HERBACEOUS PLANTS. 
 
 THE finely flowering plants of this description deco- 
 rate the garden in an eminent degree ; they flower 
 year after year, and require little or no care. Many 
 kinds contain distinct species, and these species again 
 consist of numerous and beautiful varieties. The 
 following list is select,, yet comprehensive. 
 
 Aconitum 
 
 Achillea 
 
 Allium 
 
 Alyssum 
 
 Anthericum 
 
 Arabis 
 
 Asclepias 
 
 Asphodelus 
 
 Caltha 
 
 Campanula 
 
 Catananche 
 
 Centaurea 
 
 Chelone 
 
 Chrysocoma 
 
 Convolvulus 
 
 Coreopsis 
 
 Delphinium 
 
 Fraxinella 
 
 Fumaria 
 
 Gentiana 
 
 Gladiolus 
 
 Hepatica 
 
 Hemerocallis 
 
 Hieracium 
 
 Iris 
 
 Liatris 
 
 Linum 
 
 Lychnis 
 
230 
 
 HERBACEOUS PLANTS. 
 
 JLythrum 
 
 Melittis 
 
 Monarda 
 
 Narcissus 
 
 GEnothera 
 
 Orchis 
 
 Ornithogalum 
 
 Orobus 
 
 Phlox 
 
 Polygala 
 
 Rudbeckia 
 
 Saponaria 
 
 Saxifraga 
 
 Scilla 
 
 Silene 
 
 Statice 
 
 Teucrium 
 
 Trollius 
 
 Veratrum 
 
 Verbascum 
 
 Veronica 
 
 I have given the generic names of the above, be- 
 cause they are more generally known and expressed 
 by them; I shall add the English names of a few 
 more, as they occur to my recollection. 
 
 Candy Tuft 
 
 Columbine 
 
 Daisy 
 
 Dogs'-tooth Violet 
 
 Lily 
 
 Poppy 
 
 Rose Campion 
 
 Rock Rose 
 
 Wall Flower 
 
 Sweet William 
 
 Heart's Ease 
 
 Honesty 
 
 Jonquil 
 
 Peony 
 
 Foxglove 
 
 Solomon's Seal 
 
 Lily of the Valley 
 
 Rocket 
 
 Hollyhock 
 
 Valerian 
 
 Loose strife 
 
 Scabious 
 
HERBACEOUS PLANTS. 
 
 231 
 
 TENDER AND HARDY ANNUALS. 
 
 Balsam 
 
 Cockscomb 
 
 Eggplant 
 
 Tricolor 
 
 Globe Amaranth 
 
 India Pink 
 
 Xerantbemum 
 
 Zinnia 
 
 Larkspur 
 
 Chrysanthemum 
 
 Lavatera 
 Lupine 
 Sweet Pea 
 Belvidere 
 Persicaria 
 Havvkvveed 
 Sweet Sultan 
 French Marigold 
 African ditto 
 
( 232 ) 
 
 OF 
 
 ORNAMENTAL TREES 
 
 FLOWERING SHRUBS. 
 
 I KNOW of no scene in nature more interesting than 
 a well-planted Shrubbery, stored with choice trees, 
 where art imitates nature, and where a judicious 
 classification and grouping have been observed, both 
 as regards the height, the form, and colour ; so that 
 all the various shades of leaf, of branch, and blos- 
 som, blend and harmonize in order and beauty. 
 
 In the spring of the year in particular, such a 
 scene never fails to interest even the most heartless 
 and indifferent beholder; he finds his senses re- 
 freshed and gladdened by the gentle breeze, wafting 
 the sweets from so many flowers, varied alike in 
 form and fragrance : nay, his whole frame feels most 
 sensibly at the time, that there is a ' healing' in the 
 
ORNAMENTAL TREES, ETC. 233 
 
 air around him, and he inhales it with delight. Nor 
 is the appearance of the Shrubbery in autumn much 
 less striking ; the pendant berries and the changeful 
 leaf, exhibiting such diversity of shade and colour, 
 give to it a most picturesque effect, lovely, though 
 somewhat mournful. 
 
 When one reflects indeed upon the length of time, 
 the toil, the trouble, and the vast expense, that have 
 necessarily been incurred in transplanting into Eng- 
 land from so many different countries, and bringing 
 as it were into one view, these elegant and useful 
 productions of nature, one cannot but be struck with 
 the patient and persevering industry of man, and 
 the force and application of his intellectual faculties 
 even in this pursuit; of which these exotic shrubs 
 and trees may be considered as lasting monuments, 
 growing in honour of all those, who have been so 
 fortunate as to have benefited their country by the 
 contribution of some new species or variety. 
 
 The courteous reader may here, if he feel so in- 
 clined, not having the splendid reality before him, 
 indulge awhile in f wakeful reverie/ and fancy 
 
234 ORNAMENTAL TREES, ETC. 
 
 himself in the centre of some spacious grove-belted 
 lawn, contemplating such a scene ; and if he further 
 fancy himself in the company of a beloved wife, 
 daughter, friend, or companion, all the better ; for 
 to be alone in such a case, is beyond doubt, lonely; 
 the Rose and the Violet, plucked and presented by the 
 hand of any one of these, will at the time be prized 
 the more ; and the elegant and lovely Lilac, Jasmine, 
 Honeysuckle, Sweet Briar, and the Virgin's Bower, 
 will appear to shed fresh sweets unnoticed before ; 
 and as two pair of eyes, according to every-day cal- 
 culation, will discover more beauties than one, so two 
 minds, if the least congenial in taste, will, from the 
 pleasing interchange of observation and sentiment, 
 and a disposition to please and be pleased, expe- 
 rience double gratification in examining the lovely 
 and interesting objects before them. 
 
 Let the reader, as I repeated before, contemplate 
 such a scene of Nature, where trees and shrubs 
 (on whose branches the birds are warbling their 
 sweet notes) rise gradually above one another, in 
 form not much unlike to the interior seats and stages 
 
ORNAMENTAL TREES, ETC. 
 
 235 
 
 of some vast amphitheatre ; the front occupied with 
 plants of short growth,, yet of the choicest flowering 
 sorts, and the back ground filled up with ornamental 
 trees of taller size ; let him there view in succession 
 the early blossoms in January, February, and March 
 of the 
 
 Mezereon 
 Pyracantha 
 Laurustinus 
 Glastonbury Thorn 
 Alaternus 
 Manna Ash 
 Cornelian Cherry 
 
 Spurge Laurel 
 
 Almond 
 
 Phillyrea 
 
 Peach Tree 
 
 Portugal Laurel 
 
 Spanish Traveller's Joy 
 
 And again in April, May, June, and July, the 
 
 Bay Tree ' 
 
 Barberry Tree 
 
 Corcliorus, from Japan 
 
 Honeysuckle 
 
 Hypericum 
 
 Laurel 
 
 Laburnum 
 
 Lilac 
 
 Privet 
 
 Elder 
 
 Furze 
 
 Guelder Rose 
 
 Jasmine 
 
 Judas Tree 
 
 Kalmia 
 
 Rose 
 
 Sy rin go 
 
 Sweet Briar 
 
 Cistus 
 
 Service Tree 
 
 Hawthorn 
 
 Horse Chestnut 
 
236 
 
 ORNAMENTAL TREES, ETC. 
 
 Magnolia Sumach 
 
 Scarlet Maple Althaea 
 
 Rhododendron Broom 
 
 Mountain Ash Heath 
 
 Bird Cherry Pomegranate 
 
 Rose Acacia Passion Flower 
 
 Tulip Tree Spiraea 
 
 Azalea Tamarisk 
 
 Bladder Senna Trumpet Flower 
 
 Itea Virgin's Bower, &c. 
 
 Nor let him overlook these evergreens, the 
 
 Andromeda Cypress 
 
 Box Arbutus 
 
 Coronilla Bignonia 
 
 Germander Rockrose 
 
 Arbor Vitse Juniper 
 
 Cedar Southern Wood 
 
 Fir Ivy 
 
 Holly Savin 
 
 Cytisus Widow's Wail 
 
 There are many other trees of tall growth, which 
 more properly belong to the park, the wood, and the 
 forest, as 
 
 Ash 
 Alder 
 Beech 
 Birch 
 
 Chesntut 
 Cork Tree 
 Elm 
 Lime 
 
Larch 
 
 Oak 
 
 Plane 
 
 ORNAMENTAL TREES, ETC. 237 
 
 Sycamore 
 Walnut 
 Willow, &c. 
 
 Poplar 
 
 In gardens the choicest flowering shrubs of dwarf- 
 ish growth only should be introduced ; for few plants 
 thrive well beneath the smothering shade of large 
 ones : and in forming new shrubberies and planta- 
 tions, especial care should be taken to allow proper 
 space for the several plants, lest in a few years they 
 become a tangled wood, and require untimely lop- 
 ping, which not only injures their growth but de- 
 stroys their beauty. 
 
( 238 ) 
 
 THE BOWER. 
 
 ' The roof 
 
 Of thickest covert was inwoven shade. 
 Laurel and Myrtle, and what higher grew 
 Of firm and fragrant leaf ; on either side 
 Acanthus, and each odorous bushy shrub 
 Fenced up the verdant wall ; each beauteous flower, 
 Iris all hues, Roses and Jessamin, 
 
 Rear'd high their flourish'd heads between, and wrought 
 Mosaic ; under foot the Violet, 
 Crocus, and Hyacinth, with rich inlay, 
 Broider'd the ground.' 
 
 MILTON. 
 
 How grand, stately, and majestic appear those large 
 Elms, Beech trees, Oaks, Planes, and Sycamores, 
 which are pretty generally to be met with in most of 
 our noblemen's parks in England ; whose branches 
 have never been violated by the axe, but have been 
 suffered to grow by way of ornament, descending on 
 all sides within eight or ten feet of the ground, and 
 thereby affording a most agreeable shade and shelter 
 to both men and cattle ! I have always viewed them 
 with pleasure. 
 
THE BOWER. 239 
 
 I here recommend to my youthful readers to seize 
 every opportunity of acquiring not only a knowledge 
 of the names, but also of the several properties of each 
 tree and shrub ; and to be able readily to distinguish 
 the same both by leaf, flower, and fruit. They will 
 find their perception quickened, and their compre- 
 hension enlarged, by a close examination into the 
 various productions of nature ; and their gratification 
 will increase, as their knowledge of natural history 
 advances ; for it is really provoking oftentimes to 
 witness the ignorance of many persons, (not Cock- 
 neys alone,) on the subject of trees and plants in 
 particular, who are well informed upon almost every 
 other. 
 
( 240 ) 
 
 A 
 
 FLOWER CHRISTENING. 
 
 ONE of the most important and wished-for events in 
 the life of a florist in a florist's estimation, at least 
 is the raising of a fine flower from seed. His joy 
 on first beholding it is equal to that of a lord on first 
 viewing the infant heir of his title, wealth, and 
 honours. By the production of this flower he claims 
 the undisputed title of florist among the brotherhood, 
 grounds his pretensions to superior knowledge, and 
 assumes a loftier tone of decision upon every dis- 
 putable point connected with the fancy. But to fix 
 upon an appropriate and distinguished name for his 
 new flower, is a work of almost as much difficulty 
 as to raise it. No vulgar or common name can, in 
 his opinion, speak its merits or exemplify its beauties. 
 The flower must be ennobled by the ennobling name 
 of King, Queen, Emperor, Hero, and very often con- 
 
A FLOWER CHRISTENING. 24i 
 
 secratccl by the sacred titles of Jupiter, Mars, Juno, 
 Venus. The unlettered florist, on such an occasion, 
 is frequently obliged to consult the parson, the 
 schoolmaster, or the doctor, as high authorities, for 
 some learned and astounding name; but the sum- 
 mary of the proper names of the heathen gods and 
 goddesses, illustrious heroes and heroines, and cele- 
 brated worthies and beauties of antiquity, discovered 
 at the end of Entick's Spelling Dictionary, has ob- 
 viated much of the difficulty heretofore complained 
 of. Sam Greenhorn, an old florist, after many years 
 trying and toiling, at length had the good luck to 
 raise a number of seedling Carnations, which dazzled 
 the eyes, excited the envy, and blinded the judgment, 
 not only of Sam, but of many others in his neigh- 
 bourhood. Sam, with nice discrimination, selected 
 twelve of the best, and hastened up with ardent speed 
 to town, a distance of fifty miles, to present them for 
 exhibition at a flower-show society, whose members 
 were met to contend for a silver cup, and celebrate 
 their annual feast ; it was somewhere near Chelsea 
 
 M 
 
242 A FLOWER CHRISTENING. 
 
 or Battersea, places noted for the cutting of simples 
 and cabbages, as well as the curing of simpletons. 
 
 Sam's name was announced by the landlord in 
 due form, and he was ordered to be ushered up stairs* 
 He entered the room, made his reverence to the 
 chairman, and presented his seedlings. They were 
 most minutely inspected and critically examined; 
 and whether it was the smile of pleasure and appro- 
 bation that appeared on their countenances, accom- 
 panied with sly winks, becks, and leers, or that 
 roguish, malicious, mischievous smile, which is often 
 visible when simple men become the dupes of their 
 own weakness and credulity, and the sport of others, 
 I am at a loss to determine : all declared themselves 
 struck with astonishment, and professed an eager 
 desire to become subscribers and purchasers of these 
 new flowers ; no language, according to their account, 
 could sufficiently describe their beauties, and no price 
 could overrate their value. Sam was left to fix his 
 own price, and fancied his purse to be already filled, 
 like the cornucopia of old, and his reputation as a 
 
A FLOWER CHRISTENING. 243 
 
 florist established for ever. A difficulty was started 
 because those seedlings had not yet been named, and 
 therefore had no distinguishing titles whereby to 
 know them. Sam was requested to retire for a while 
 for this purpose, and particularly charged to fix 
 handsome names to them. He withdrew accord- 
 ingly, not a little perplexed at the task he had to 
 perform. It is true, he had been pondering in his 
 mind for months over the names he should give them, 
 but had not been able to come to any final conclu- 
 sion. He could have no benefit of clergy in this 
 case, because he was a bit of a methodist ; as to the 
 schoolmaster, he said it was of no use to go to him, 
 for he only taught upon the national system, and 
 therefore did not know more than himself; and as 
 to the doctor in his neighbourhood, there was a little 
 bill unpaid on his wife's account, which foreclosed 
 the door of application in that quarter. ' When I 
 get to London,' Sam used to say, ' I shall get over 
 this dilemma about names;' for London, he had 
 heard, was the place where honours, titles, and dis- 
 tinctions, were conferred ; and that if they were once 
 
 M 2 
 
244 A FLOWER CHRISTENING. 
 
 christened there, nobody would presume hereafter to 
 change them. 
 
 On descending below, he found ten or twelve per- 
 sons seated round a large table, drinking porter, 
 smoking tobacco, and betting upon the pans of 
 flowers of their respective masters ; for our London 
 tip-top florists never go unattended to those feasts. 
 Sam was invited to drink, and a few moments' con- 
 versation soon put them all upon one convivial footing 
 of good fellowship. He began to find himself quite 
 at home, and thought himself extremely lucky in the 
 opportunity thus afforded him of asking their advice 
 and counsel; in truth, these fellows generally know 
 as much or more about flowers than their employers, 
 for they are the operative florists, while the others, 
 in general, are only lookers-on. Sam took from the 
 box his best scarlet-bizarred Carnation, and desired 
 the company to give a name to it. 
 
 Tom Tulip, as the oldest fancier in the room, 
 took the lead upon the occasion, and swore that it 
 was all over a good flower, and nothing but a good, 
 one, and that if ever flower deserved the name of 
 
A FLOWER CHRISTENING. 245 
 
 Emperor, this one did, and he therefore proposed 
 that it should be called Greenhorn's Emperor, which 
 was unanimously agreed to. The bell was rung, 
 the waiter came, and two bottles of wine w r ere 
 ordered by Sam, upon the suggestion of Tulip. 
 Chair ! chair ! was called, and Mr. Samuel Green- 
 horn was unanimously voted into it. The wine 
 arrived, the corks were drawn in a crack, and Tom 
 Tulip proposed the health of Mr. Greenhorn with 
 three, and success to his Emperor. The bottles 
 were soon emptied in discussing the imperial pro- 
 perties of the Emperor. Sam then drew forth a 
 purple-flaked carnation, which was handed round. 
 Bill Rose descanted for some time upon the various 
 merits of this flower, pointed out the real Tyrian 
 purple stripe, and maintained that it was one of the 
 best he ever had seen : the name, he insisted, should 
 be Greenhorn's Queen, Queen Caroline. Sam 
 nodded ascent, and ordered in a third bottle, which 
 was soon disposed of as before. A rose-coloured 
 flake was next handed round. Strawberry Jack 
 declared himself enraptured with it ; the leaf was a 
 
246 A FLOWER CHRISTENING. 
 
 complete rose leaf, well ribboned, well formed, and 
 the colour that of the royal Provence rose, bright 
 and brilliant. Jack swore that Mr. Greenhorn was 
 one of the luckiest fellows he ever knew in his life, 
 and that the flower should be called the Rose of 
 Roses ; this name was also adopted. A fresh bottle 
 was called for, and the baptismal toast drunk as 
 before with glee. The spirits of the company began 
 now to be volatilized, and the tones of their voices 
 mellowed and heightened; they were all talkers 
 and no hearers ; a charming discord of merry sounds 
 or songs was also heard, and coarse jokes cracked as 
 thick as nuts. The exhaustion of the bottle pro- 
 duced a pause, and another flower was brought for- 
 ward, a crimson bizarre. Ned Ricklas undertook 
 to point out its beauties. ( Observe here,' cries 
 Ned, ' the genuine colours of the rainbow ; here's 
 crimson, scarlet, and purple, softened down in a 
 variety of shades : I mean to call this, for I am 
 a bit of a botanist/ said Ned, ' after old father 
 Linnaeus, a flower worthy of him, and he of the 
 flower.' A peal of approbation followed : Green- 
 
A FLOWER CHRISTENING. 247 
 
 horn ordered another bottle, Linnseus's health was 
 drank in raptures,, and the same etiquette was ob- 
 served as before. A scarlet flake was next pro- 
 duced, and Greenhorn declared that he would name 
 it himself. Moonlight Dick held the flower in his 
 hand. e Well, Mr. Greenhorn,' he exclaimed, f this 
 is a wonder of a flower ; this is a flamer ; I can look 
 the sun in the face easier than this flower, its bright 
 scarlet quite overcomes me ; what pretty name have 
 you for it ? ' < Why, as to the matter of thai;,' said 
 Sam, f I don't know much about prettiness, but I 
 mean to call it after my wife, Meg.' f Why now,* 
 replied Dick, ' that's both handsomely said and 
 kindly done of you ; it shall be named the Lovely 
 Margaret by all means, and we will toast her in a 
 bumper.' 
 
 The sixth bottle was called for, which the land- 
 lord, being now at leisure, after having attended 
 upon the company up stairs, brought in himself, 
 and inquired, in rather a sharpish tone, who was to 
 pay for all this wine, beer, tobacco, and sundries? 
 He held the bill, at the same time, in his hand, 
 
248 A FLOWER CHRISTENING. 
 
 amounting to somewhere about seven and forty 
 shillings, including Greenhorn's refreshment, before 
 he waited upon the company up stairs. ' Oh,' 
 exclaims Tom Tulip, ' our chairman there, Mr. 
 Samuel Greenhorn, will stand godfather to his own 
 seedlings, and discharge the bill with pleasure ; but 
 we have not yet got half through the ceremony : it 
 will never do to send the rest home into the country 
 without their names; what say you, Mr. Green- 
 horn?' 
 
 ' I will just step out and settle with mine host for 
 what we have had in/ replied Sam, ' and I will 
 return presently.' Sam, it is true, felt elevated with 
 liquor ; but this unthought-of call upon his slender 
 and ill-provided purse, which happened luckily to 
 contain, within two or three shillings, the sum de- 
 manded, brought him to sober recollection. The 
 landlord took what he had, and Sam, it being then 
 near ten o'clock, decamped in silence, leaving his 
 Emperor, Queen, Rose of Roses, old Linnaeus, and 
 his wife Meg, behind him. The deep, arch rogues, 
 his companions, these modern Cantelupes, hearing 
 
A FLOWER CHRISTENING. 249 
 
 that Greenhorn had decamped, rushed vexed and 
 disappointed into the street, and sent forth shouts of 
 scorn, insult, and derision; these appalling sounds 
 were yet within reach of Sam's ears, and quickened 
 with alarm his reeling steps. His Emperor, they 
 bawled out, was a mere button ; his Queen a butter- 
 cup ; Linnaeus no better than a wind-mill sail ; his 
 Tyrian purple a perfect ' bas bleu,' or Lancashire 
 blue-stocking; and his Lovely Meg a dirty red 
 garter. Further I dare not report. 
 
( 251 ) 
 
 THE 
 
 RULES AND REGULATIONS 
 
 OF A 
 
 FLORISTS' SOCIETY. 
 
 I HERE beg to present the reader, by way of Appen- 
 dix,, with the substance at least of the Rules and 
 Regulations of two Societies of Florists, which were 
 some years ago instituted at Islington and Chelsea, 
 for encouraging the cultivation of Auriculas, Pinks, 
 and Carnations. I do this in the hope that the 
 same will not be unacceptable to the majority of my 
 readers, to the young Florists in particular, who may 
 be unacquainted with the nature of such institutions, 
 and therefore desirous of obtaining some information 
 respecting them ; they will also serve as a ready pre- 
 cedent to refer to for the establishing of rules for any 
 new society elsewhere. 
 
 There are several others of the same description. 
 
252 RULES OF A FLORISTS' SOCIETY. 
 
 in the neighbourhood of London ; but these two were 
 not only the most numerous in point of numbers, 
 but likewise the most respectable in regard to the 
 members composing them, who consisted of several 
 amateur gentlemen florists, and the most eminent 
 public florists round the metropolis. The laws of 
 these two Societies were, in fact, both in spirit and in 
 letter, very much alike, and several of the members 
 belonged to them both. 
 
 RULE I. 
 
 Any person desirous of becoming a member of 
 this Society must be proposed by one of the mem- 
 bers, and seconded by another at one of the regular 
 meetings, and a written notice must be sent to that 
 effect by the secretary to every member, stating the 
 name and residence of the person so proposed ; the 
 election to take place by ballot the next succeeding 
 show-day; such person will then be admitted a 
 member, unless two black balls appear against him. 
 
RULES OF A FLORISTS' SOCIETY. 253 
 n. 
 
 That a president and secretary be chosen annually, 
 on the Carnation show-day, by ballot. 
 
 in. 
 
 That the names of the members and their resi- 
 dences be inserted in the articles. 
 
 IV. 
 
 That each member's subscription be U. Us. 6cZ. 
 per annum: 10s. 6d. for Auriculas: 10s. 6d. for 
 Pinks: 10s. Qd. for Carnations. Persons making 
 use of any art, in order to deceive the committee, 
 except that of merely dressing the flowers for the 
 show, will be expelled the Society. 
 
 v. 
 
 That when special meetings are called to fix the 
 show-days, or on other occasions, the secretary shall 
 send a printed or a written notice to each member ; 
 and all absentees shall forfeit two shillings. 
 
254 RULES OF A FLORISTS' SOCIETY. 
 
 That each member shall pay for a dinner ticket 
 for Auriculas, Pinks, and Carnations ; but should it 
 be inconvenient, on the day the show is appointed, 
 for such member to attend at dinner, he shall be at 
 liberty to transfer his ticket to any gentleman he may 
 think proper, indorsing his name on the back. 
 
 VII. 
 
 That each member shall provide, at his own ex- 
 pense, a pan to show his Carnations in, agreeable to 
 the Society's pattern. 
 
 VIII. 
 
 That all flowers on show-days shall be in the room 
 the Auriculas at one o'clock. Pinks one o'clock, 
 Carnations one o'clock, precisely, by the house clock, 
 or they shall not be admitted ; and that each mem- 
 ber pay any demand for deficiencies the secretary 
 may have against him previous thereto, or be expelled 
 the Society. 
 
RULES OF A FLORISTS' SOCIETY. 255 
 
 IX. 
 
 The committee, styled censors, umpires, or judges, 
 three in number, to determine the prizes, shall be 
 chosen by members present on the show-days, who 
 shall declare, if required, that they have not seen or 
 assisted in dressing any of the blooms since they 
 were gathered or selected for show. 
 
 x. 
 
 Members showing flowers on show-days, shall de- 
 clare they have been in their possession the last four 
 months ; and if Seedlings, that they are of their own 
 sowing and growing. No Seedling to be admitted 
 to take a Seedling prize after the third year of 
 blooming. 
 
 XI. 
 
 That the value of prizes shall be presented in plate 
 to each successful candidate on the show-days. 
 
 XII. 
 
 That the prizes shall be limited to six in number 
 for the named flowers, and two for Seedlings. 
 
256 RULES OF A FLORISTS' SOCIETY. 
 
 XIII. 
 
 That each member showing flowers on show-days- 
 shall return to his seat as soon as he has carried 
 them into the show-room, and shall not leave it until 
 the flowers have heen brought into the dining-room, 
 and have passed round the table, beginning on the 
 president's right hand, and returning on his left, in 
 order that each person may distinctly view them* 
 The flowers not to be taken away until they are dis- 
 missed by the president. 
 
 xiv. 
 
 That if any member shall call the judgment of the 
 censors in question, after the prizes are declared, he 
 shall for such offence forfeit one guinea, or be ex 
 pelled the Society. 
 
 xv. 
 
 That if any member shall create a quarrel, so as 
 to disturb the harmony of the company on the show- 
 days, his conduct shall become the subject of consi- 
 
RULES OF A FLORISTS' SOCIETY. 257 
 
 deration at the next meeting, and a majority of the 
 members then present deciding on its impropriety, 
 shall expel him the Society. 
 
 XVI. 
 
 That if any member refuses to pay any of the 
 before-mentioned fines, or shall attempt to evade any 
 of the rules, he shah 1 be immediately expelled the 
 Society. 
 
 XVII. 
 
 That all forfeits be appropriated to the Seedling 
 prizes. 
 
 XVIII. 
 
 No member is allowed to show flowers on the day 
 he is admitted. 
 
 XIX. 
 
 That no person be suffered to touch or handle the 
 blossoms on show-days, without the consent of the 
 proprietor, under the forfeiture of twenty shillings. 
 
( 258 ) 
 
 PRIZES FOR AURICULAS. 
 
 To the person who shows the best and completest 
 pair of Auriculas, each of a different sort, not less 
 than seven full-blown pips to each plant : 
 
 First prize. A piece of plate equal in value to 
 one-fourth of the sum subscribed, after deducting the 
 Seedlings. 
 
 Second do One-fifth. 
 
 Third do. ... , . .One-sixth. 
 
 * 
 
 Fourth do One-seventh. 
 
 Fifth do > One-eighth. 
 
 Sixth do One-ninth. 
 
 For the best Seedling Auriculas with three full- 
 blown pips : 
 
 First prize. 
 
 Second do ... 
 
( 259 ) 
 
 PRIZES FOR PINKS. 
 
 To the person who shows the best and completest 
 twelve blossoms of Pinks, every one of a different 
 sort: 
 
 First prize. A piece of plate equal in value to 
 one-fourth of the sum subscribed. 
 
 Second do One-fifth. 
 
 Third do One-sixth. 
 
 Fourth do One-seventh. 
 
 Fifth do One-eighth. 
 
 Sixth do One-ninth. 
 
 For the best Seedling Pinks, laced, or otherwise : 
 
 First Prize 
 
 Second do. 
 
( 260 ) 
 
 PRIZES FOR CARNATIONS, 
 
 To the person who shows the completest twelve 
 blossoms of Carnations, every one of a different sort : 
 
 First Prize. A piece of plate equal in value to 
 one-fourth of the sum subscribed, after deducting for 
 seedlings. 
 
 O 
 
 Second do One-fifth. 
 
 Third do One-sixth. 
 
 Fourth do One-seventh. 
 
 Fifth do One-eighth. 
 
 Sixth do , One-ninth. 
 
 For Seedling Carnations, either Flakes or Bizarres: 
 First prize 
 
 Second do. . 
 
( 261 ) 
 
 PRIZE GOOSEBERRIES. 
 
 KNOWING that several florists are great cultivators 
 of Gooseberries, I have been induced, for their grati- 
 fication, to insert a copy of the winning berries of 
 the year 1823, distinguished into four classes ; 
 viz. Red, Yellow, Green, and White, taken from 
 ' An Account of the different Gooseberry Shows, 
 ' held in Lancashire, Cheshire, Cumberland, York- 
 < shire, Derbyshire, Staffordshire, Nottinghamshire, 
 * Leicestershire, Northamptonshire, Warwickshire,' 
 &c. published in Manchester. I beg to remark, 
 that the summer of 1823, being cold and wet, was 
 most unfavourable to fruits of every description. 
 
 I have done this the more readily, because it will 
 assist many ladies and gentlemen, also, who may 
 not have an opportunity of seeing this ' Account ;' 
 in making their selection they can form an idea of 
 the size of the berries from their weight, and are in- 
 formed, at the same time, of the colour of each. 
 
262 PRIZE GOOSEBERRIES. 
 
 I beg to recommend particularly, for their rich 
 flavour, the Jubilee, Viper, Scorpion, Ocean, and the 
 Lancashire Lass : the taste of this last very much 
 resembles the greengage plum, a complete sweetmeat, 
 when ripened in a hot summer. 
 
 If we may credit the account of some of the old 
 writers, England was not in possession of the Goose- 
 berry-tree till the reign of King Henry VIII., when 
 it was introduced from Flanders. About the same 
 time also, herbs for salads, carrots, cabbage, and 
 other vegetable plants and edible roots were intro, 
 duced, chiefly by the monks, who were ever attentive 
 to their temporal wants and enjoyments. They were 
 excellent judges in this respect, for you never find 
 any of the old monasteries or abbeys built in bleak 
 and barren situations, without water; but, on the 
 contrary, in rich vales, by the side of fine rivers,, 
 where the fertility of the soil could be turned to 
 good account, in the production of corn, fruits, and 
 vegetables, and in the rearing of domestic animals, 
 and where the waters might afford a good supply of 
 fine fish. Asparagus, cauliflowers, beans, and peas, 
 
PRIZE GOOSEBERRIES. 263 
 
 did not find their way into England till the time of 
 the restoration of Charles II. This country, there- 
 fore,, does not appear to have been originally favoured 
 with any of the choicest gifts of nature, either in 
 respect to fruits, vegetables, or flowers. Its native 
 fruits, if they are deserving at all of the name, are 
 the acorn, crab, sloe, blackberry, juniperberry, 
 elderberry, hips, and haws : all others are exotics, 
 and have been introduced into it. 
 
 Gooseberry bushes produce the finest fruit when 
 young ; that is, about the third or fourth year after 
 planting : they should be renewed every seventh 
 year, and well pruned every year, or they soon de- 
 generate. The same observation applies with equal 
 truth to raspberries and currants. 
 
 The experienced gardener is aware, that if any 
 tree is suffered to bear and ripen its whole crop of 
 fruit, no matter whether it be the peach, the apricot, 
 the nectarine, the vine, or gooseberry, the fruit will 
 be small, and appear not like the same, provided it 
 had been properly thinned. If you wish to try 
 what effect the following mode of treating tjhe goose- 
 
264 PRIZE GOOSEBERRIES. 
 
 berry has upon its fruit, select a young healthy tree, 
 and leave only three or four berries upon each 
 branch, plucking off the rest, when they are of the 
 size of a pea ; then give it what gardeners call an 
 emulsion of the ( Nectar adoratum,' the ' Lac me- 
 dicinale,' which is a watering-pot full of the draining, 
 or black fluid from the dunghill. Do this twice, a 
 fortnight apart ; if a large bush, thrice, but not 
 oftener, lest you stupify or intoxicate its vegetative 
 faculty, if I may so express it. 
 
 When the berries are swelling and ripening, if 
 the weather be dry and hot, water frequently, but 
 do not saturate it too much at one time. This is 
 the method adopted by some who exhibit berries for 
 prizes, and is attended with the wished-for result. 
 
 If your soil is light and sandy, and soon parches, 
 lay a stratum of rotten cow-dung upon the surface 
 round the root of the bush : this will keep the earth 
 below moist and cool, and be of service to both the 
 fruit and the tree. 
 
 I do not pretend to say that the berries will equal, 
 either in size or weight, the newly restored anted!- 
 
PRIZE GOOSEBERRIES. 265 
 
 luvian cherry of the London Horticultural Society ; 
 the real ' Cerasum Ponticum ' of the ancients, one 
 of the lost fruits of the Golden Age, four of which 
 are said to weigh a pound; but they will surpass 
 every expectation you may have formed. Trees 
 that are to produce those wonderful cherries, are 
 now propagated with great care and earnestness in 
 the Society's gardens at Turnham Green. 
 
 But alas ! since I first wrote the preceding para- 
 graph, in the first edition of this work, I have 
 learnt, to my regret, that this said cherry is nearly 
 all stone, and that the stone of it is much heavier 
 and larger than that of an apricot. It is a monstrous 
 production of the kind, it must be allowed, but it is 
 not worth cultivating ; for it has not one good quality 
 to recommend it, neither flesh, flavour, nor juiciness. 
 Let it be restored forthwith to the wilderness ; and 
 let the skilful gardener continue to bud and graft 
 from the May-duke, the black-heart, the bleeding- 
 heart, bigarreau, carnation, morello, black eagle, 
 Waterloo, Montmorency, c. &c. 
 
 N 
 
266 PRIZE GOOSEBERRIES. 
 
 The following is the List, commencing with 
 
 THE RED GOOSEBERRIES. 
 
 Dwts. Grs. 
 
 Roaring Lion 23 2 
 
 Huntsman 22 23 
 
 Sir John f 23 6 
 
 Overall 23 12 
 
 Crown Bob 20 17 
 
 Lancashire Lad 20 12J 
 
 Prince Regent 22 4 
 
 British Crown 20 
 
 Jubilee 20 1 
 
 Sportsman 20 4 
 
 Smolensko 19 14 
 
 Pastime 20 15 
 
 Top Sawyer 22 1 
 
 Superior 21 19J 
 
 Boggart 19 15 
 
 Yaxley Hero 20 2 
 
 Jolly Miner 19 23 
 
 Printer 17 12 
 
 Highwayman 19 6 
 
 Richmond Hill 18 17 
 
 Bang-up 19 
 
 Triumphant 19 14 
 
 Rough Robin 17 7 
 
PRIZE GOOSEBERRIES. 267 
 
 Dvvts. Grs. 
 
 Elisha 17 17 
 
 Glorious 18 21 
 
 Whipper-in 17 9 
 
 Emperor 17 12 
 
 Ploughboy 15 12 
 
 PlimBob 17 12 
 
 Nonsuch 17 7 
 
 Sampson 17 1 
 
 Patriot 18 13 
 
 Rifleman 18 
 
 Lord Hill 16 11 
 
 Lord Ward 15 
 
 Cheshire Man 18 21 
 
 Polander 16 18 
 
 Spanking Roger 16 14 
 
 Father Belts 16 2J 
 
 Warwickshire Lad 16 
 
 Roman Rig 15 10 
 
 Moorcock 17 6 
 
 Earl Grosvenor 15 9 
 
 Duke of Leeds 16 
 
 N.B. Heaviest Red Berry (Seedling), Foxhunter, 
 25 dwts. 2 grs. Nantwich Meeting, grown by John 
 Bratherton, Cheshire. 
 
 N 2 
 
263 PRIZE GOOSEBERRIES. 
 
 YELLOW. 
 
 D\vts. Grs. 
 
 Rockvvood 22 9 
 
 Nelson's Waves 20 9 
 
 Viper 21 4 
 
 Delight 22 7 
 
 Queen 18 3 
 
 Chain IS 6 
 
 Golden Sovereign 2i 1 
 
 Cottage Girl 19 16 
 
 Invincible 16 8 
 
 Gunner 18 4 
 
 Trafalgar 1 16 , 16 
 
 Conquering Hero 18 IS 
 
 Regulator 17 13 
 
 Cheshire Cheese 17 8 
 
 Smuggler 16 20 
 
 Swing'em 16 
 
 Ringleader 16 4 
 
 Husbandman 15 21 
 
 Diamond 19 16 
 
 Radical 19 15 
 
 Ville de Paris 15 21 
 
 Don Cossack 17 16 
 
 Bottom Sawyer 17 6 
 
 Ruleall 16 4 
 
 Sir Charles Wolseley 14 12 
 
PRIZE GOOSEBERRIES. 269 
 Dwts. Grs. 
 
 Banger 15 
 
 Blacksmith 16 3 
 
 Tim Bobbin 15 5 
 
 Wedge *. 16 20 
 
 Scorpion 17 3 
 
 Purse , ... 13 12 
 
 Bunker's Hill 16 12 
 
 Duke of Waterloo 15 
 
 Medal 15 2 
 
 Fleece 17 12 
 
 Highlander 14 14 
 
 Lord Suffield 13 3 
 
 Favourite 11 11 
 
 Colonel Holden 14 22 
 
 Emperor of Russia 12 19 
 
 Self- Interest 16 10 
 
 Union 14 3 
 
 Gourd 15 2 
 
 Overseer 15 12 
 
 Rattlesnake 14 12 
 
 N. B. Heaviest Yellow Berry, Rockwood, 22 dwts. 
 9 grs., Heywood Meeting, grown by Joseph Clegg, 
 near Rochdale, Lancashire. 
 
270 PRIZE GOOSEBERRIES. 
 
 GREEN. 
 
 Dwts. Grs. 
 
 Ocean 19 11 
 
 Greenhood 17 16 
 
 Independent 16 11 
 
 Jolly Angler 19 14 
 
 Favourite 18 1 
 
 Troubler 17 5 
 
 Laurel 16 
 
 Mountain 17 10 
 
 Elijah 18 20 
 
 Lively Green 17 17 
 
 Wistaston Hero 17 14 
 
 Jolly Tar 16 9 
 
 Merryman 16 6 
 
 Farmer 17 7 
 
 Peover Pecker 16 10 
 
 No Bribery 16 
 
 Evergreen 15 
 
 Southwell Hero 14 20 
 
 Nelson 13 14 
 
 Green Dragon 14 7 
 
 Profit 1 17 17 
 
 Chisel 13 
 
 Waterloo 17 11 
 
 Bellingham 17 4 
 
 Rough Robin 15 11 
 
 Captain Greenhall 14 12 
 
PRIZE GOOSEBERRIES. 271 
 
 Dwts. Grs. 
 
 Green Ralson 13 19 
 
 Green Anchor 13 
 
 Glory of Ratcliff 11 20 
 
 Toper 13 
 
 Derby Ram 15 1 
 
 Fair Play 14 
 
 Jolly Cobler , 13 8 
 
 Wistaston Green 14 
 
 Nathaniel's Pride 12 11J 
 
 Liberty 13 2 
 
 Star 14 18 
 
 Green Bag 14 8 
 
 Dr. Crompton 12 11 
 
 N. B. Heaviest Green Berry (Seedling), Green 
 Willow, 19 dwts. 20 grs., Nantwich Meeting, grown 
 by Joseph Bratherton, Cheshire. 
 
 WHITE. 
 
 Wellington's Glory 18 22 
 
 Thrasher 19 
 
 Queen Anne 17 17 
 
 Nailer 18 
 
 Smiling Beauty 17 16 
 
 Bonny Lass 18 
 
 Cheshire Lass . . , 16 6 
 
272 PRIZE GOOSEBERRIES. 
 
 Dtvts. Grs. 
 
 Toper 16 12 
 
 Ferotrate 16 15 
 
 Queen Caroline 19 1G 
 
 Conquering Hero 11 7 
 
 Dusty Miller 16 9 
 
 Reformer 16 12 
 
 White Lion 16 ] 3j 
 
 Sheba Queen 15 H 
 
 Lady Delamere 18 5 
 
 Counsellor Brougham 15 6 
 
 Bonny Landlady 15 
 
 Merry Lass . .^ 16 
 
 Queen Mary 17 2 
 
 Maid of the Mill 14 
 
 Whitesmith 13 7 
 
 Marchioness of Downshire 16 4 
 
 Redress 15 7 
 
 White Rock 17 15 
 
 Venture 15 1 
 
 Republican 16 12 
 
 Northern Hero 13 
 
 Queen Charlotte 14 13 
 
 Lovely Lass 15 IS 
 
 Pillar of Beauty 14 7J 
 
 Honesty 14 28 
 
 Great Britain 13 
 
 Fair Rosamond 13 16 
 
 Beauty of England 13 3J 
 
PRIZE GOOSEBERRIES. 273 
 
 Dwts. Grs. 
 
 Governess 18 21 
 
 Luck's All 16 5 
 
 Packington Hero 12 21 
 
 Ram 13 19 
 
 Hall's Conqueror 13 18 
 
 Milk-Maid 12 22 
 
 Rockgetter 14 
 
 Fowler 14 
 
 Transparent 13 9 
 
 White Flower 12 6 
 
 Heaviest White Berry (Seedling), Princess Royal, 
 22 dwts. 3 grs., Nantwich Meeting, grown by John 
 Bratherton, Cheshire. 
 
 5 
 
( 274 ) 
 
 NOTICE EXTRAORDINARY. 
 
 ' Non semper idem floribus est houos 
 Vernis.' HORACE. 
 
 To the ladies and gentlemen who take pleasure in 
 the flower-garden, this officious intimation is hereby 
 given, in the name and in the behalf of all the 
 florists in Great Britain. 
 
 That as much as the poor, sickly, half-starved, 
 ragged, disconsolate man differs from the same man 
 when prosperous, well-fed, well-clothed, in health, 
 cheerful, and at his ease, so much does the healthy, 
 well-cultivated flower differ from the same flower 
 when neglected, and planted in barren and improper 
 soil. In vain will the same man exclaim, ' I am he, 
 I am the man ; ' no one will believe him, scarce any 
 one will know him he is the world's scorn. So it 
 is often the case with a flower, when in the hands of 
 a florist, and again when in the care of some gentle- 
 
NOTICE EXTRAORDINARY. 275 
 
 man or lady's bungling gardener the flower is no 
 longer acknowledged to be the same flower : thus 
 reproach is very often unmeritedly incurred by the 
 florist. 
 
 By way of recapitulation, then, be it added, that 
 one-third fresh loam or maiden-earth, two-thirds 
 frame-dung, with one-sixth of the whole, dried road- 
 grit or sand, put together in the autumn, and fre- 
 quently turned in the winter, will form a compost in 
 which almost any plant will thrive in the spring and 
 summer following; and whoever manages to keep 
 his plants in health, and in a vigorous state of 
 growth, will never fail to have a generous bloom. 
 Valete. 
 
 THE END. 
 
LONDON? 
 
 PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES, 
 Stamford Street. 
 
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