104 CARYOPHYLLE^ 



Michael Drayton calls them Cloves of Paradise ; indeed, of all the flowers 

 prized by our forefathers, this, the Glove de giroflee, was, next to the rose, the 

 highest in esteem. It is amusing to read its praises, written by Lawson at 

 the close of the sixteenth century, where he terms it the king of flowers, 

 except the rose; and prides himself on being the possessor of Gillyflowers 

 " of nine or ten diff"erent colours, and divers of them as bigge as roses." " Of 

 all flowers, save the damask rose," he says, " they are the most pleasant to 

 sight and smell ;" and adds, that " their use is much in ornament, and com- 

 forting the spirites by the sense of smelling." " There was a variety of this 

 flower," says Mr. Hudson Turner, " well known in former times as the wall 

 gillyflower, or bee flower, because growing on walls, even in winter, and good 

 for bees ;" but this was our wallflower (Cheiranthus cJieiri), which the old 

 herbalists commonly called the winter gillyflower. " The reserved rent," 

 says Mr. Turner, in his paper on the Horticulture of the Middle Ages, " the 

 uniiis clavi gariqfili, which is of such frequent occurrence in mediaeval deeds 

 relating to land, meant simply the render of a Gillyflower, although it has 

 usually been understood to signify the payment of a Clove of commerce." 

 " The incorrectness of this rendering," adds this learned and interesting 

 writer, "must be apparent, if we recollect that the Clove was scarcely known 

 in Europe in the eleventh and twelfth centui^ies, when this kind of reserved 

 rent was most common." 



The French term the Clove Pink L'CEillet, and the Germans Die Nelke. 

 It is the Angelier of the Dutch, the Garofano of the Italian, and the Glavel of 

 the Spaniai-d. In its cultivated form of the Carnation, it is the chief florist's 

 flower of Germany. In the beginning of the eighteenth century, nearly 400 

 varieties had been enumerated by gardeners, and that number is probably 

 now increased. One addition to their worth as garden-flowers is, that the 

 Carnation and most of the Pinks have their foliage as abundant in winter as 

 in summer, and of as rich a sea-green tint. The Dutch, who cultivate all 

 the tribe largely, as we do, call the Sweet- Williams Keijkeiis, which is their 

 name for a nosegay. With vis they are prized in the grandest as well as the 

 humblest garden, and many may say with Hurdis — 



" Ye botanists, I cannot talk like you, 

 And give to every plant its name and rank, 

 Taught by Linne, yet I perceive in all, 

 Or known or unknown, in the garden raised. 

 Or nurtured in the hedge-row or the field, 

 ' A secret something which delights my eye 



And meliorates my heart. And much I lovo 

 To see the fair one bind the straggling Pink, 

 Cheer tlie sweet rose, the lupin, or the stock, 

 And lend a staff to the still gadding pea ; 

 And let me praise the garden-loving maid, 

 Who innocently thus concludes the day : 

 Ye fair, it well becomes you !" 



On a few walls in this kingdom, as on those of Ludlow Castle, the common 

 Pheasant's-eye Pink {Dianthus 2)lumarms) grows apparently wild, but it is not 

 truly so. It is a hardy flower, and has been much cultivated by mechanics 

 and operative manufacturers around large towns. The muslin-weavers about 

 Paisley have been celebrated for the beauty of the Pheasant's-eye Pinks 



