PINK. 43 



Tuftes." Gerard calls them Sweet-Williams, but 

 on what account they were so named we are left to 

 surmise, unless we could persuade ourselves that 

 they were so called after the greatest man of that 

 age, William Shakspeare. Gerard notices many 

 varieties, both with double and single flowers ; he 

 says, " We have in our London gardens a kinde 

 hereof, bearing most fine and pleasant white flowers, 

 spotted very confusedly with reddish spots, which 

 setteth foorth the beautie thereof, and hath beene 

 taken of some to be the plant called of the later 

 writers Superha ylustriaca, or the pride of Austrich/' 

 This author quaintly observes, ^' These plants are 

 kept and maintained in gardens, more for to please 

 the eie, than either the nose or belly,"" 



In the floral vocabulary, the Sweet- William is 

 made the hieroglyphic of finesse. 



In the inimitable imitation of the bard of Mar- 

 mion, the flames of Drury are represented as giving 

 to every object the hue of this flower : 



To distant fields the blaze was borne ; 

 And Daisy white and hoary Thorn 

 In borrow'd lustre seem'd to sham 

 The Rose or Red Sweet Wil-H-ara. 



Rejected Addresses, 



This species of Dianthus has been named Bar^ 



batiis, from the hairy or pointed scales of the calyx. 



The easy culture of this plant, and its hardy 



