148 GARDEN FLOWERS. 



cuous flowers, but a great variety bloom in the 

 lands of southern Europe, and grow on the 

 mountains of Germany and Switzerland at a 

 great height. The kind of jjink called laced 

 pinks, is that cultivated so much by florists, 

 and their flowers should be about two inches 

 and a half in diameter, with white petals, 

 rose-coloured edges, and a dark purple ring 

 in the centre. It does not appear that this 

 tribe of flowers was known to the ancients, 

 for no poet of Greece or Eome has sung of 

 their perfume or beauty ; and they are not 

 mentioned by Pliny, or any other naturalist of 

 those distant ages. 



The sweet-william {^Dianthus harhatiis) is a 

 clustered species of pink, and is called by the 

 French, nosegay of pinks. It grows wild in 

 Germany, and also on the hills of Normandy, 

 but with much smaller flowers than it has in 

 our gardens. 



The China pink, {Diantlius Chinensis,') which 

 seems neither exactly like a pink nor a sweet- 

 william, is of a beautiful red colour, each 

 blossom growing on a single stalk. It appears 

 to have been introduced from China, into our 

 gardens, about the middle of the last century. 



The numerous species of groundsel have 

 among them a few handsome flowers. One 

 common and very ornamental species is now 

 in bloom. The purple ragwort, or jacobaja, 

 (Senecio ekgcms,) has sometimes double flowers, 

 of rich velvet surface, and beautiful dark hue. 

 It is a native of the Cape of Good Hope. One 



