CHAPTER XII 

 THE WILD PINKS 



THE wild Pinks are beautiful garden flowers, and 

 from some of the species are derived the Car- 

 nations, garden Pinks, and the quaint Sweet 

 William in its many pretty colourings. According to 

 Dr. F. N.Williams in his enumeration of the species 

 and varieties of the genus in 1899, the family consists 

 of 231 species, distributed throughout Europe — with 

 the exception of Ireland and Iceland — temperate Asia, 

 and North and South Africa, with a representative 

 in the extreme north-west of America. Most of 

 them are perennials, with grass-like foliage ; a few 

 have a tendency to become shrubs, while some are 

 of only annual or biennial duration. Many are 

 the conditions under which these flowers of highland 

 and lowland are discovered. Some delight in the 

 meadows and dry heaths of the plain, a few enjoy 

 the sea-shore, and others gem the alps and glacier, 

 and give a rare beauty to the alpine flora. The wild 

 Pinks are beautiful in the rock-garden, and form 

 tufts of evergreen leaves, quite glaucous in colour, 

 which show their beauty best on ledges, or in some 

 rocky nook where the flowers are not lost in the spring 

 months of the year. Some of the Pinks have large 



