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PREFACE THIS little volume is a companion to Sweet Violets and Pansies, which formed the first of the smaller gardening books in the Country Life Library. It has been written at the request of many readers of Country Life and The Garden, and it is to be hoped that the ripe experience of the con- tributors to its pages, and the simple directions for the growing of the Carnation, Picotee, and the beauti- ful wild Pinks, will have their value. The brave masses of old Clove Carnations in the gardens of our forbears, the sweet drifts of white Pinks, and the warm fragrance scenting the summer air, are pleasant reminiscences. With a greater choice of varieties, the Carnation has developed in interest and popularity, and a garden is not a garden that is without the silvery tufts of growth which have a quiet beauty even in winter days, when we are wise enough to group them with grey-leaved shrubs, such as Rosemary and Lavender. Although Pinks and Carnations are welcome in so many ways of gardening, perhaps their greatest use, other than in wall and rockwork, is as edgings and underplantings to Roses, or something of taller stature than their own. By edgings is not meant the white straight or stiff borderings only, though Pink and its forms are among the very best plants for this use, but informal fillings of the outer portions of beds and borders. Used like this with Roses, they are admirable, each plant enhancing the beauty of the other. They are perhaps least suited for filling up whole beds, unless the beds are quite small, and especially narrow, in form. The deepening love for hardy flowers should have a good effect on floral exhibitions, which have not always directed the would-be gardenerinto wholesome channels. The showing of Carnation flowers in little paper collars is grotesque and without reason. Surely it is more instructive to show a flower in its natural beauty, and not attempt to cheat the visitor into the belief that the flower there arranged in a paper collar will reveal the same sym- metry of form and colouring in the open garden. A Carnation that is fit only for a show box, and is useless in the garden, should have no claim upon our consideration. Raisers must strive to obtain flowers that keep their petals within bounds. A Carnation that splits has little garden value, and whether it splits or not, if it is without fragrance, we would have none of it. The crimson Clove has the charm of a distinctive and deliciously warm fragrance, but there are varieties as scentless as a Baroness Rothschild Rose. This should not be tolerated. The first act generally of a buyer of Carnations is to smell them, and it is in the interests of the trade as well as the gardener to intensify rather than obliterate one of the great charms of the flower. I thank most heartily the contributors to this little book and if the reader wishes to consult other writers, the following works may be recommended Le Jardinage des Oeillets. A. Paris, 1647. Nouveau Traite des Oeillets. A. Paris, 1676. A Practical Treatise on the Carnation. By Thomas Hogg, Florist, Paddington Green, 1839. The American Carnation How to Grow it. By Chas. Willis Ward. A. T. De la Mare Printing and Publishing Company, New York. Reas Flora. By John Rea, London. Printed for George Marviott, Fleet Street, 1676. Dodwell on the Carnation. Derby, W. Bacon, Beckett Hill Works. Carnation Manual. Published by the CarnationSociety. Messrs. Cassell Co. The Book of the Carnation. By R. P. Brotherston...