ON PINKS. 35 



When your Pinks are in flower, whether they grow in the naked 

 earth or in pots, you must take care to cover them ; for their flower 

 is so delicate, that the sun withers it away in liitle time, and the rains 

 will take off all their lustre : therefore, they that raise up Pinks, must 

 make use of what expedients they think fit, to preserve them from 

 these injuries. 



There are some, who, to make the flowers of their Pinks last the 

 longer, carry them into the shade : this is a very good method, and 

 may he followed if you think fit. 



The pink is a plant, that from its root shoots out leaves, that are 

 long, narrow, hard, thick, and of a bluish green ; from the middle of 

 which grow stalks that are hard, round, and knotty from space to 

 space ; at the top of which are flowers of many leaves and various 

 colours, supported by a long and pipe-like cup. From the middle of 

 the cup rises up a chive, that in time becomes a cylindric and mem- 

 braneous head, opening at the top, wrapped up in the cup itself, and 

 filled with a small flat seed, of a black colour, and that comes to 

 maturity, by setting the pink in the same place where it was when it 

 began to blow. 



When you would furnish yourself with a stock of pink-seed, you 

 must always make choice of the most fruitful, and the most inclined 

 to bear seed; which a florist, who applies himself ever so little 

 to the culture of his pinks, will easily distinguish. 



After having given rules for the culture of pinks, as also the de- 

 scription of them ; and told how and in what place the seed is formed, 

 I believe it will be proper to set down in this place the qualities that 

 render it a beautiful flower ; to the end that he who cultivates it, may 

 know perfectly well on w r hat he bestows his labour. 



A pink is reckoned beautiful when it is large, has a great many 

 leaves, and forms as it were a sort of little dome. 



When it is of a clear white, without any mixture of carnation ; 

 when its leaves are even at the edges, and not jagged, all of them 

 round, and not sharp-pointed. 



The more variety of colours a pink has, the more it is esteemed ; 

 especially when the colours are well divided, and not in the least 

 imbibed. 



The most beautiful variegation that can be on a pink, is always that 

 which reaches from the bottom to the top of the flower ; and when 

 besides these advantages that please the eye, Nature has favoured it 

 witii a regular disposition of its leaves ; or that we, in defect thereof, 

 have ranked in due order ourselves. A pink, in which all these 

 qualities meet, deserves the labour we bestow in cultivating it ; and 

 we have reason to be fond of it, on account of its excellence. 



Tin: Disease or Pinks. — Pinks are subject to certain diseases which 

 ,-iic easier to prevent than cure; they are rottenness, and the white 

 disease. 



