In the Garden In my garden—thanks chiefly to a kindly
gift—are now in blossom some of the odder examples of the new crosses between the carnation and the sweet william. Unskilled gardeners ask what flowers they are, and are struck, most naturally, by their oddity rather than their beauty. Now I visited the latest fortnightly show of the R.H.S. and in that Hall of Experts was struck not by the oddity but by the beauty and scarcely credible variety of the newer carnation tribes. The inventors of the Allwoodii carnation (which made a great sensation when first shown by Mr. Allwood many years ago) have gone on continuously varying the theme. You could have a garden (and a greenhouse)—" who loves a garden loves a greenhouse, too !"—consisting entirely of carna- tions. There is every sort of colour-pattern, often dispensing the delicious clove scent, and remarkable differences in height. Of them all the most fascinating are the dwarfs. There is something fairy-like, suggestive of Titanias' Mustard See'd and the rest, about a company of these midgets dancing on a mound of gravel or granite chips, that adds a new charm to any rock, scree or Alpine garden. In one picture they danced round the base of a juniper bush (or tree 7), almost as dwarf as themselves.
W. BEACH THOMAS.
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