310 THE GARDEN, YOU, AND I 



Hence to make the right selection of plants for the 

 bed of sweet odours it is best, as in the case of choosing 

 annuals, to adhere to a few tried and true worthies. 



But at your rhapsody on the bed of carnations, I 

 am also tempted to launch forth in praise of all pinks 

 in general and the annual flowering garden carnation, 

 early Marguerite, and picotee varieties in particular, 

 especially when I think what results might be had 

 from the same bits of ground that are often left to be 

 overrun with straggling and unworthy annuals. For 

 to have pinks to cut for the house, pinks for colour 

 masses out-of-doors, and pinks to give away, is but a 

 matter of understanding, a little patience, and the 

 possession of a cold pit (which is but a deeper sort of 

 frame like that used for a hotbed and sunken in the 

 ground) against a sunny wall, for the safe wintering 

 of a few of the tenderer species. 



In touching upon this numerous family, second 

 only to the rose in importance, the embarrassment is, 

 where to begin. Is a carnation a pink, or a pink a 

 carnation? I have often been asked. You may 

 settle that as you please, since the family name of all, 

 even the bearded Sweet-William, is Dianthus, the 

 decisive title of Linnseus, a word from the Greek mean- 

 ing "flower of Jove," while the highly scented species 



