There are three ways of increasing your stock of Carnations: by layers, by pipings or cuttings, and by seed. We will tell you first how to layer them. If possible, it should be done in July, so that your layers are well rooted and ready to transplant in September. You must prepare some finely sifted compost of loam, leaf-mould, and silver sand. A town child may not be able to get leaf-mould, but you can, at any rate, buy a little silver sand, sift some of the best soil in the garden, and mix the two together. This must be placed round the Carnation you wish to layer, and you must choose those plants which have made good non-flowering shoots, neither too woody nor too tender and sappy. The leaves of each shoot must be stripped off at the end proceeding from the main stalk, leaving about three or four leafy joints above. Then with a sharp knife you make an upward slit, beginning just below a joint, and ending halfway through, so as to form a tongue. The shoot must then be carefully pegged down with a hairpin or a zinc layer pin in such a way that the cut is left open and the tongue is firmly fixed in the soil. A little more soil should then be put over the part that is pegged down, and water given with a fine rose. In a month or so the layers ought to be rooted, and by the first or second week in September they should be ready to detach from the parent plant and plant out. It is a delicate piece of work to make the layer cut, as if you do not go far enough no roots result, while if you go too far the layer dies. Nor is it easy to peg down your layer successfully. But it is such an interesting operation that we think you will probably want to try it. Cuttings should also be taken in July or August, because the ground is warm then. One way is to cut the stem square across a joint, remove all the leaves for at least two inches from the bottom, and plant in a situation that is shady but not directly under trees. The cuttings should be inserted at least two inches deep, and in soil that has had sand well worked into it. They must not be allowed to get quite dry. Another kind of cutting we will describe from that delightful old gardening book published by John Murray in 1840, and called, ‘Gardening for Ladies,’ by Mrs. Loudon. ‘Pipings are cuttings of Pinks and Carnations, and, indeed, are applicable to all plants having jointed tubular stems. They are prepared by taking a shoot that has nearly done growing, and holding the root end of it in one hand, below a pair of leaves, and with the other pulling the top part above the pair of leaves, so as to separate it from the root part of the stem at the socket formed by the axils of the leaves, leaving the part pulled off with a tubular or pipe-like termination—hence the name of pipings; and when thus separated they are inserted in finely sifted earth or sand, and a hand-glass is firmly fixed over them.’