FOUR COMMON FLOWERS 177 



It may be of interest to recall, in connection 

 with this curious manifestation of color heredity, 

 that the carnation has been under cultivation 

 from an early historical period. The name Dian- 

 thus, signifying divine power, is said to have been 

 given it by Theophrastus three hundred years 

 before Christ. 



The flesh color of the original carnation was 

 broken up into red and white more than three 

 centuries ago. Since then multitudes of varieties 

 have been developed. Yet there is a strong tend- 

 ency in this flower to hold to uniformity of color 

 as regards any individual flower. That is to say, 

 carnations in general are likely to be uniformly 

 scarlet or uniformly pink or uniformly white. 

 There are variegated forms, to be sure, but these 

 are exceptional. 



This tendency of the flower to hold to one color 

 or another may at least be recalled with interest 

 in connection with the curious tendency of the 

 tricolored hybrid to give recognition to the dif- 

 ferent colors of its parents in the same flower in 

 successive periods of time. 



I have produced no other variant of corre- 

 sponding interest in this tribe, although I have 

 had twenty-five or thirty species of Dianthus 

 growing for the purpose of crossing, and have 

 produced other variants of some importance. 



