Soil

Dr. Horner recommends - "Two parts old pasture sods, two years old, and one part old frame manure, three years old, with a sufficient addition of coarse river sand, to prevent tenacity of the soil. Pasture sods reduced to mould, are preferable to soil taken from a greater depth, inasmuch as they contain the fibrous roots of the grass, which during their gradual decay afford a constant supply of most acceptable nourishment." - Gard. Chron.

Propagation

Pipings stuck in this mould are to be covered with a hand-light, exposed fully to the sun; but in hot weather, in the evening, water poured over the hand-light; pick out worms and slugs. If the pipings are placed in a box, covered first with a bell-glass, which is to be exchanged for a small hand-glass, or a larger bell-glass, as the pipings begin to grow, the boxes placed on a stage on the north side ofa tree, and the stage resting on feeders, filled with lime-water, there is less trouble with insects, and the pipings will grow very well, but not so rapidly." - Gard. Chron. For the best mode of obtaining pipings, see Pink.

Raising Varieties

Dr. Lindley says, - "The fertilization of carnations should be performed as soon as the stigmas unfold. The action of pollen is not instantaneous, but slow; and it is necessary that it should adhere.

"Although it may produce no effect at the time of applying it, yet it will eventually fertilize the seed-vessel, if the flower be kept dry. If the seed-vessel grows, and yet the seed does not swell, it is because fertilization has not taken place. It would increase the probability of procuring seed, to place the pots near a south wall. It is of no use to cut out the centre petals when the flower is very double." - Gard. Chron.

Sowing

"The surface of the soil should be finely pulverized, and the bed raised somewhat above the level of the adjoining ground. The seed may be scattered broadcast over the bed, and afterwards lightly pressed with the back of a rake." - Gard.-Chron.

" Seedlings are always more vigorous than those that have been in cultivation for a length of time.

"It is not usual for carnations and pinks to bloom the first season. When the seed is sown early, flower-stems are occasionally thrown up late in the autumn, and all destroyed by frost." - Gard. Chron.

The plants generally come up in a month after sowing; give occasional watering and weeding, and in July they will be fit to prick out into nursery beds, which prepare in an open situation, three feet wide; and taking advantage of moist weather, prick the plants there- | in four inches apart, and finish with a general watering, which repeat occasionally till all the plants have taken good root. Here let them remain till September, - when they will be so well advanced in growth as to require more room; and should have their final transplantation into other three-feet-wide beds of good earth, in rows lengthways the bed, nine inches asunder, and the same distance in the lines, placing them in the quincunx order; and here they are to remain all the winter, and until they flower, and have been increased by layers; until which periods all the culture they require is, that if the winter prove very severe, an occasional shelter of mats, during the hardest frost, will be of much advantage , and in spring, loosen the ground between them with a hoe. Keep them always clear from weeds, and when their flower-stalks advance, tie them up to sticks.

They will flower in June, July, and August, at which times, as soon as the singles and doubles are distinguishable, all the singles may be rejected.

When fully blown, examine their properties; the finest may be marked for stage flowers, and the others are furniture for the borders; all of which may be increased by layers the same year.