CARNATIONS AND PINKS 



CHAPTER I 



HISTORICAL NOTES 



BY JAMES DOUGLAS, V.M.H. 



THE Carnations at present in cultivation in British gardens 

 have arisen from the wild species of Dianthus known as 

 Dianthus Caryophyllus. This species is not believed to be 

 indigenous to Great Britain, but it has been naturalised 

 here for many centuries. It is not known when the plant 

 was introduced to these shores ; some think that it may 

 have been introduced by the Romans, but it is much more 

 likely that its introduction occurred at a later date, and that 

 it came here from Normandy. In any case, Dianthus Caryo- 

 phyllus is the parent of all the brilliant, self-coloured Car- 

 nations, the varied and richly tinted fancies, the beautiful 

 yellow and white ground Picotees, and the Flakes and 

 Bizarres that were loved so much by the florists of the 

 nineteenth century. When or where the first development 

 into the semi-double or double form occurred, there is no 

 information. We know from Turner's Herbal, published in 

 1550, that the Carnation had taken its place as a garden 

 flower previous to that date, for Turner states that the flowers 

 " are made pleasant and sweet by the wits of man and not 

 by Nature." This is but a half-truth, for Nature had certainly 



A 



