DESCRIPTIVE LIST OF FLOWERS. 199 



Kornicke describes already in Regels Gartenflora as Dian- 

 thus laciniatus. I raised last year 800 seeds from it, 

 which I sowed early ; and already at the end of May they 

 commenced to display their most magnificent flowers, of 

 a diameter of four inches. I was greatly rejoiced to see 

 a part of them of splendid, dense, double flowers, in the 

 greatest variety of colors, viz. : pure white, rose, lilac, 

 carmine, crimson, purple-violet, the darkest black-brown, 

 spotted and striped ; a splendid sight, far beyond descrip- 

 tion. August 3, 1859, I exhibited 18 plants in as many 

 different varieties, and received the highest reward for 

 novelties, ' the Golden Medal,' from the Imperial Horti- 

 cultural Society. This Pink grows two feet high; the 

 small leaves have a length of four inches, and the double 

 varieties, from their dense double form, and the laciniate 

 petals, somewhat resemble the flower Papaverpceoniflorum. 

 Some plants endured our last Russian winter without be- 

 ing covered." I have had the pleasure of cultivating 

 these novelties since 1861, and find them to correspond 

 nearly with these descriptions. I have not had any that 

 attained a greater height than a foot, or foot and one-half, 

 but have had all the shades of color mentioned by Mr. 

 Heddewig. The foliage is somewhat glaucous and lance- 

 olate. Both varieties produce double flowers. To ascer- 

 tain whether they would survive over winters, I protected 

 a large bed of them with leaves in the autumn of 1864, 

 and they came out bright in the spring of 1865 and flow- 

 ered superbly during the summer. If they are not hardy 

 enough to stand the winter without covering, they are very 

 valuable acquisitions to the flower-garden as annuals. 

 Like the China Pinks, they are destitute of fragrance. 



D, Vcrschafltfltii. Verschaffelt's Hybrid Pink. A 

 remarkably novel and beautiful hardy flower-garden plant, 

 from M. Ambroise Verschaffelt, nurseryman, Ghent. It 

 has a neat and compact half-shrubby, densely-branched 



