CARNATIONS, PICOTEES 



AND THE WILD AND 

 GARDEN PINKS 



CHAPTER I 



EARLY HISTORY OF THE CARNATION, 

 SWEET WILLIAM, AND PINK 



By the Rev. Professor Henslow, M.A. 



The Carnation 



TURNING first to the writers of antiquity, 

 no description of the Carnation {Dianthus 

 CaryophylluSy Linn.) can be recognised in 

 ancient Greek and Roman authors. Theophrastus 

 uses the word dianthe, meaning either " double- 

 flowering " or " variegated," or, as others think, 

 " hermaphrodite," but as the sexes of ordinary plants 

 (excepting a few such as the Date Palm) were 

 unknown, this last suggestion is impossible. Curiously 

 enough, Shakespeare introduced the idea of crossing 

 in reference to Gillyflowers : 



Perdita, The fairest flowers o' the season 



Are our carnations and streak'd gilloflowers, 

 Which some call nature's bastards : of that kind 

 Our rustic garden's barren, and I care not 

 To get slips of them. 

 ^ — Winter's Tale, Act iv. sc. iii. 



A 



