"SWEET SUMMER BUDS" 183 



the English flora, being naturalized on Rochester 

 and other castles. It is abundant in Normandy; 

 and I found it in 1874 covering the old castle of 

 Falaise, in which William the Conqueror was born. 

 I have found that it grows on the old castles of 

 Dover, Deal and Cardiff, all of them of Norman 

 construction, as was Rochester, which was built by 

 Gandulf, the special friend of William. Its oc- 

 currence on these several Norman castles makes it 

 very possible that it was introduced by the Norman 

 builders, perhaps as a pleasant memory of their 

 Norman homes, though it may have been inci- 

 dentally introduced with the Norman (Caen) stone, 

 of which parts of the castles are built. How soon 

 it became a florist's flower we do not know; but it 

 must have been early, for in Shakespeare's time the 

 sorts of Cloves, Carnations and Pinks were so many 

 that Gerard says : 'A great and large volume would 

 not suffice to write of every one at large in particu- 

 lar, considering how infinite they are, and how every 

 year, every climate and country bringeth forth new 

 sorts and such as have not heretofore been written 

 of.' " 



Parkinson speaks of "Carnations, Pinks and Gillo- 

 flowers." "The number of them is so great," he says, 

 "that to give several descriptions to them were end- 



