DIANTHUS. 
Bulbifera’s on a smaller plant; D. microphylla, much smaller yet, 
only about 6 inches, yet with undiminished blooms, and D. bipinnata, 
which runs about in the high-alpine screes of Western Caucasus with 
creeping rhizome thick with little oval bulbils, and leaves not an 
inch tall, and flowers just as in the last. There is also a pretty little 
D. trifolia of 6 inches, smaller even than Cardamine trifolia, and with 
blossoms of lilac; D. polyphylia attains 10 inches, with handsome foliage 
again and blossoms of cream white fromthe Eastern Alps (very near 
D. enneaphylla, but its leaves have seven long pointed lobes); D. savensis, 
lilac, rises to 8 inches; D. pinnata, and D. pentaphylla, are both 
mauve, and both about a foot high. These all bloom about April, 
with D. polyphylla continuing into May ; all can be raised from seed, 
or divided quite easily at pleasure at any time. 
Dianthus.—In no race is there more confusion, and in no race 
is there a larger proportion of second- or third-rate species. Catalogues 
abound in wrongly-named Dianthus, in undescribed or indescribable 
or merely mongrel Dianthus ; and to adventure into the maze in search 
of a good new species is a hopeless task unless some kind Ariadne 
has provided you with a clue. To play such a part shall be the effort 
of this list. And all that now remains to be said is that almost all 
Dianthus are of the very easiest culture in any light soil and any 
sunny place (especially rejoicing in the moraine), while all of them 
can be profusely raised from seed, or propagated by cuttings like 
Carnations. The race is essentially Old World, southern, heat-loving, 
drought-loving, lime-loving, but there are exceptions to these last 
rules, for certain species climb high upon the mountains, while others 
have developed a distaste for lime. Their blooming-time covers 
practically all the season, opening with the blaze of D. alpinus, and 
filling June with the Fringy-flowers; while later summer is more 
barren, but has the larger species, such as D. arenarius, and D. swperbus, 
and D. atrorubens, going gaily forward to the point at which D. Seguieri 
takes up the tale in the latest days of autumn. 
D. acaulis is also D. frigidus, and D. frigidus belongs to D. sil- 
vestris, g.v., Which ought only to be called D. inedorus. 
D. acicularis from the Ural is quite near to D. squarrosus, but with 
especially narrow leaves and flexuous stems. 
D. actinopetalus —From 12 to 18 inches, many sterile boughs, but. 
also many flowers, two or three, asa rule, tothe stem. Petals obovate, 
pale and sharply toothed. (Rocks of Cos, Lycia, &c.) D. a. elegans 
is a small compact form of only some 3 to 8 inches in height. 
D. alpester or D. alpesiris is a difficult name, always appearing 
vaguely in catalogues. The first D. alpester (Sternb.) is a name for D. 
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