JULY. 147 



A very pretty Californian annual is now 

 blooming. This is tlie shady uemophila, {Ne- 

 tnophila 2:>hacelioides.) Its flower is of brightest 

 blue, and its name, taken from the Greek words, 

 to love, and shade, indicate that this genus is to 

 be found chiefly where trees and bushes cast 

 their shadow. 



Among the many odours of this season, few 

 are more pleasant than that of the pinks, which 

 flowers are now in perfection. It was, perhaps, 

 for its fragrance, stiU more than for its 

 beauty, that the pink was called the divine 

 flower. The aivnaiiou {Dianthus caryophyUus) 

 is thought to have had its origin in the wild 

 clove pink of our land, and wdiich also grows 

 on the Alps of Switzerland. At the commence- 

 ment of the eighteenth century, four hundred 

 varieties of the carnation were enumerated, 

 and their numbers are now increased. They 

 are all sweet and beautiful flowers, and their 

 leaves, which gardeners term grass, are, from 

 their evergreen natui'e, ornamental to the bed 

 in Avinter or early spring. The plant called 

 tree pink {Dianthus arhoreus) is merely a kind 

 of carnation, with a woody stem, and its pink 

 flowers are found in the isles of Greece. 



Many writers have considered the pink (Di- 

 anthus j)lumanus) as merely a variety of the 

 carnation ; and as it does not appear to be found 

 in a Avild state, it is probably derived, if not 

 from the carnation, yet from some of the smaller 

 pinks, Ashich grow wild in various countries. 

 Our native pinks are few, and chiclly inconspi- 



