PINK. 31 



Shakespeare uses the term of pink-eyed, to ex- 

 press a small or sparkling eye : 



Come, thou monarch of the vine, 

 Plumpy Bacchus, with pink eyne. 



He also uses the word pink as an expression of 

 superior excellence, — as 



I am the very pink of coui'tesy. 



But to proceed in the history of this Pink of 

 flowers, we go back to the days of Queen Elizabeth, 

 from whose vegetable historian, Gerard, we learn 

 that it was then cultivated in its improved double 

 state ; and he is the first writer who calls them 

 «' Pinks, or Wild Gilloflowers," from their being 

 smaller than the '' Clove Gilloflower, or the Car- 

 nation,"" which were also known at that time in 

 English gardens. 



England, Spain, France, Germany, and most 

 other temperate and warm climates, possess a na- 

 tive Pink ; but to state how many of them have 

 been changed by cultivation, and from which each 

 peculiar variety first sprang, would be as arduous a 

 task as to attempt to define the parentage of each 

 peculiar apple, which, like the Pink, owes its ex- 

 cellence and variety to the labours of the cultivator. 

 And the Pink, like the apple, continues to demand 

 the attention of man to preserve it from degenerat- 

 ing into its original insignificance ; for although the 



