CHAPTER I 



The Carnation Family 



To mention botany is to frighten off a good many 

 lovers of garden flowers, who may be extraordinarily en- 

 thusiastic in the cultivation of their favorites, but seldom 

 dip very far into the study of their scientific relationships. 



Montagu C. Allwood, in " The Perpetual Flowering 

 Carnation," more neatly than any one else, has expressed 

 the relationship of the members of the Carnation family: 

 " All Carnations of the present day, in their various 

 classes, from the gigantic Souvenir de la Malmaison down 

 to the humble Httle Dianthus glaciahs, are connected; but 

 Dianthus Caryophyllus, more commonly known as Pink, 

 is the branch of this large family which is more closely 

 connected with our modern flower, and is a native of 

 Southern Europe." 



There is a large number of members of this Carnation 

 family, which the botanists call " the natural order Cary- 

 ophyllacese," and their relationship is based upon the 

 botanical similarity of their flowers, stems and leaves. 

 There are said to be about sixty genera and eleven hundred 

 distinct species, a species being the true wild original type. 

 Some of these " types," because of their nobility and natural 

 beauty, were taken into gardens ages ago and under the 

 fostering hand of the owners of the gardens they gradually 

 became improved. Such was and has been the case with 

 the types (or species) called Dianthus Caryophyllus, 



