CHAPTER IV 



THE PICOTEE— WHITE AND YELLOW 

 GROUND 



By James Douglas 



IT may be as well to state at the outset that there 

 is really no difference between a Carnation and 

 a Picotee except in the colour of the flowers. 

 Both of them have descended by ordinary generation 

 from one primal source, the well-known Dianthus 

 Caryophyllus, a plant which was to be found growing 

 presumably in a wild state on the walls of Rochester 

 Castle, and it may still linger in similar positions in 

 England as it does in Normandy, Carnations were 

 cultivated on the Continent of Europe before they 

 were appreciated in England, and doubtless they 

 were brought over in many ways, principally by 

 merchants trading with European countries from 

 France to Constantinople. Indeed, the yellow Carna- 

 tion was introduced from Constantinople by a London 

 merchant, Master Nicholas Leete, in Queen Eliza- 

 beth's reign, as stated by Gerarde in his " Herbal," 

 published in 1597. 



It may be seventy or eighty years since the white 

 ground Picotee had reached its high standard of 



