II 



HISTORY OF THE CARNATION 



THE early history of the Carnation is, unhappily, involved 

 in obscurity, the very earliest record of the plant dating 

 no further back than the beginning of the sixteenth 

 century, when Bishop Douglas mentions it among other 

 garden flowers. " Jerafleris " no doubt occurs even earlier 

 in "The King's Quhair," and Chaucer has been cited 

 as proving the Carnation to have been cultivated in the 

 reign of the Third Edward ; but all good authorities con- 

 cur in identifying Chaucer's plant with the clove-tree 

 of commerce. It is, however, safe to assume that the 

 Carnation was in cultivation much earlier than we are 

 able to trace by any written record, and not improbably 

 it was no uncommon plant. Turner's remark in 

 " Libellus," where he calls it Incarnation, favours that 

 supposition. In a report recorded in " Hakluyt," and 

 written in 1568, the word referring to the plant occurs as 

 if in common use." Hill, in the "Profitable Arte of 

 Gardening" (1574 ed.), describes its cultivation as if he 

 were cognizant of the idiosyncrasies of the plant, in the 

 contents calling it a " Gilifloure and Carnation." Tusser 

 might also be mentioned, and Lyte, as early authorities ; 

 but it was not till Gerard published his " Herbal " in 

 1 597 tnat tne extern to which the Carnation was cultivated, 

 and the great number of varieties that were at that time 

 grown in gardens, can be fully gauged. It then bursts 

 suddenly upon our ken a fully developed flower, already 



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