CARNATIONS, PICOTEES 



AND THE WILD AND 

 GARDEN PINKS 



CHAPTER I 



EARLY HISTORY OF THE CARNATION, 

 SWEET WILLIAM, AND PINK 



By the REV. PROFESSOR HENSLOW, M.A. 



THE CARNATION 



TURNING first to the writers of antiquity, 

 no description of the Carnation (Dianthus 

 Caryophyllusy Linn.) can be recognised in 

 ancient Greek and Roman authors. Theophrastus 

 uses the word dianthe, meaning either " double- 

 flowering " or " variegated/' or, as others think, 

 " hermaphrodite," but as the sexes of ordinary plants 

 (excepting a few such as the Date Palm) were 

 unknown, this last suggestion is impossible. Curiously 

 enough, Shakespeare introduced the idea of crossing 

 in reference to Gillyflowers : 



PERDITA. The fairest flowers o' the season 



Are our carnations and streak' d gilloflowers, 

 Which some call nature's bastards : of that kind 

 Our rustic garden's barren, and I care not 

 To get slips of them. 



Winter's Tale, Act iv. sc. iii. 

 A 



