‘ 
. 
580 ORD. XXXII. Caryophylleee. DIANTHUS CARYOPHYLLUS, 
THE root is perennial, firm, divid@d, and beset with many 
fibres: the stems are slender, smooth, branched, upright, jointed, 
of a glaucous, or sea green, colour, and rise from one to two feet 
in height: the leaves upon the stem are short, linear, and placed 
in pairs at the joints: those of the young shoots are numerous, 
narrow, pointed, smooth, entire, and of the same colour as the 
stalk: the flowers stand singly at the extremities of the branches, 
and are of a deep crimson colour: the calyx ts tubular, cylindrical, 
divided at the mouth into five segments, and surrounded at the 
base with four oval pointed squamz:. the corolla consists of five 
petals, which at the limb are roundish, patent, scolloped, fringed, 
and attached to the common receptacle by long narrow claws: 
the ten filaments ate longer than the calyx, tapering, spreading 
"towards the top, and furnished with compressed oblong anthere : 
the germen is oval: the styles two, slender, longer than the fila- 
ments, and their stigmata curled outwards: the capsule i is cy lindri- 
cal, and contains many small roundish seeds. 
This fragrant plant is known to grow wild in several parts of 
England on old walls and im the crevices of rocks;+ but the 
flowers, which are pharmaceutically employed, are usually pro- 
duced in gardens, where they become extremely luxuriant, and 
by the arts of culture those beautiful varieties raised which are so 
highly esteemed under the name of Carnations. The flowers of 
the Clove Pink, or as it is more commonly called, Clove July 
Flower, have a pleasant aromatic smell, somewhat allied to that of 
clove spice: their taste is bitterish and subastringent. “ Rectified 
spirit, digested on the flowers, receives a much paler tincture than 
watery liquors, but extracts the whole of their active matter, 
. In distillation or evaporation, spirit elevates much less than water; 
the spirituous extract retaining a considerable share of the fine 
smell of the flowers as well as their taste: its colour is purplish 
like that of the watery extract.’’* 
+ At Rochester, Deal, Sandown, and other castles, plentifully. See Ray and Tadiom. 
* Lewis’s Mat. Med. p. 205, 
serene 
