DIANTHUS. 
reproach. It has two varieties in its wide range, but neither D. S. 
scaber, nor D. S. collinus, is nearly so well worth collecting as the 
type. 
D. Seidlitzii is another stemless minute jewel, forming dense wee 
tuffets in the high Alps of Persia in the way of D. microlepis, but that 
the little narrow leaves are gentler to the touch, and much more 
highly nervous, while the stars that come to hide them have more 
of a beard at their throat. 
D. serotinus makes specially neat tight rosettes at the base of each 
6-inch shoot ; these come up late in the season, tall and bare, all in a 
crowd, to the height of 6 or 9 inches, bearing each a deliciously fragrant 
flower, large and white and wildly fringy, darkening towards lilac 
purple at the base. The rosettes that make up the mat are, indeed, 
almost as tidy as a Draba’s, and the stalks occasionally emit a branch. 
(Austria, Croatia, &c.) 
. serratifolius is another species of no worthiness. 
. serratus— D. pungens, q.v. 
. serrulatus=D. pungens, q.v. 
. serrulatus is but an inferior version of D. petraeus. 
. siculus. See under D. caryophyllus. 
. silvestris, Wulf., 1786, must be known in future by its prior 
name of D. inodorus, L., 1753. It is the joy of all who behold it in 
the Alps, on every hot bank, in rough open places, forming concise 
tufts of long grass, from which spray out and about the most delicate 
bending sheaves of delicate arching stems, dividing into long-stemmed 
branches, and carrying big flowers of the clearest pink, oftenest 
smooth at the edge but sometimes toothed. It varies, though, greatly, 
and care should be taken to choose only the best, largest, and amplest 
in size, the softest, purest, and brightest in colour. For on the sunny 
slopes where it waves among Paradiseas and rich Asters and Cam- 
panula spicata, it will be flourishing broadcast a thousand blossoms of 
glowing round face, but also a certain number of feeble and squinny 
stars. There can also be found, too, white forms of a dainty purity 
unsurpassable. And all these will thrive in the moraine, or anywhere 
else, in light stony soil in full sun, as heartily as in their own rough 
places, and, even in the moraine, sow themselves. This Pink was 
called Silvestris because it is never found in woods. A beautiful 
and dwarf treasure has lately been going about and earning rich 
laurels under the name of D. frigidus ; this is nothing but a fine- 
flowered close-habited form of D. inodorus from some high station— 
a form of special preciousness, and not less so in that it keeps constant 
and comes true from seed. 
Soe s > 
297 
