PLNK. 37 



The French name of GEillet signifies a Uttle 

 eye, and our name of Pink seems to have been 

 derived from the Dutch name of pi?i/c for an eye, 

 and bestowed upon it on the same account. 



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

 press a small or sparkling eye : 



** Come, thou monarch of the vine, 

 Phimp Bacchus, with pink eyne." 



The same author also uses the v^ord pink as 

 an expression of superior excellence, as 



" I am the very pink of courtesy." 



But to proceed in the history of this Pink of 

 flowers, we go back to the days of Queen Eliza- 

 beth, from whose vegetable historian, Gerard, we 

 learn that it was then cultivated in its improved 

 double state, and this is the first writer who calls 

 them " Pinks, or Wild Gilloflowers," from their 

 being smaller than the " Clove Gilloflower, or 

 the Carnation," which were also then known in 

 English gardens. 



England as well as Spain, France, Germany, 

 and most other temperate and warm climates, 

 possess a native Pink, but to state how many of 

 them have been changed by cultivation, and from 

 which each pecuHar variety first sprang, would 

 be as arduous a task as to attempt to define the 



