184 Select Carnations, Picotees, and Pinks. 
XVIII—LACED AND FORDER PINKS. 
History. 
The Common Pink (Dianthus ptumarius, Linn) is 
a native of Europe and Asia, extending from Russia 
in the north to Croatia in the south, and from 
Austria to the river Ischin in Siberia. According to 
early botanical works, it was introduced to this 
country in 1629, and Paxton says 1040, but it had 
evidently been grown here before e..aer of those 
dates, though it is impossible to fix the time. It 
has long been naturalised on old walls in England, 
and still continues to maintain itself in a few scat- 
tered localities. The wild Pink has pale pink 
flowers or sometimes white. The glaucous foliage 
and the densely Hares habit are characteristic 
features of the plant at all periods of the year. 
For a long time after its introduction the Common 
Pink was simply grown as a border plant with little 
attempt at improvement. Gerrard mentions. the 
White Jagged Pink (Caryophyllus plumarius albus 
and the Purple Jagged Pink (C. plumarius_pur- 
pureus) and a wild white one. Parkinson gives a few 
varieties of it. As a florists’ flower it does not seem 
to have come into vogue prior to 1770 or about that 
time. Thomas Hogg, of Paddington Green, wrote 
about the Pink at various periods from 1820 to 1839, 
and in the latter year he recorded 154 varieties after 
eliminating the inferior sorts then in existence. The 
Pink must have enjoyed a great wave of popularity 
about that time, for 95 florists and amateurs had 
been concerned in the raising of the above varieties. 
More recently the manufacturers and mechanics 
were the chief cultivators of Pinks, especially the 
muslin weavers of Paisley. They had various sec- 
tions and many varieties of each, to wit Cob Pinks, 
Early Red Pinks, ane Pheasant’s Eyes. The latter 
were the most popular, for Loudon says that the 
Paisley weavers had 300 varieties of them. Loudon 
said that the pheasant’s eves seemed to have sprung 
_from Cobs, and D. Armerius and D. deltoides. Dr. 
F. N. Williams, who wrote a monograph of the genus 
Dianthus, was of opinion that the Maiden Pink (D. 
deltoides) was the source of origin of the Early Red 
