WHY IS IT BARBATUS1" 377 



flush of flowers." It blossoms in July, and there are not, it is 

 said, more than half-a-dozen spots in England where it may 

 be found wild. 



To this dainty and beautiful tribe belongs that common 

 but handsome and most fragrant flower, the Bearded Pink or 

 Sweet William (Dianthus barbatus)> a native of central 

 Europe and southern France, with long lanceolate leaves, 

 bearded petals, ornamental bracts, and dense clusters or tufts 

 of crimson or rose-coloured blossoms. It has long been a 

 favourite with the cottager, for it is so hardy that it will grow 

 in any soil, and will flourish even in the odd corner known as 

 the " children's garden." Its popular name, " long, long ago," 

 was " London tuftes ; " and it owes its specific appellation of 

 barbatus, or "bearded," to the nature of its calyx. That 

 quaintest of quaint old botanists, delightful Gerarde, lavishes 

 encomiums upon its beauty, and pronounces it meet " to deck 

 up the bosoms of the beautiful, and garlands and crowns for 

 pleasure." I suspect that now-a-days it seldom figures in a 

 posy. 



To the same order as the Dianthi that is, to the Caryo- 

 phyllacece. belong many wild flowers of lowly growth but 

 abounding interest ; as, for example, the corn-cockle, whose 

 lilac-coloured petals, soaring conspicuously among the tall 

 waving corn, have procured for it the right royal appellation 

 of Agrostemma, or " the crown of the field." So, too, the 

 numerous species of campion and catchfly (Silene), with their 



