THE CARNATION. 83 



A STAGE OF CARNATIONS. 



A STAGE of Carnations is a splendid and beautiful 

 sight, of which no one can form any just idea, 

 unless he has had the opportunity of beholding two 

 or three hundred blossoms at one time. 



Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough, was extremely 

 partial to Carnations, and had every year about two 

 hundred pots of them : she was frequently heard to 

 say, that nothing gave her so much pleasure as the 

 sight of her Carnations in full bloom, and which she 

 preferred to all the green-house plants in her pos- 

 session. 



Sir John Hill, also, in some of his works, speaks 

 in praise of the Carnation, whose fragrance, he says, 

 led him to enjoy it frequently. There is not the 

 least doubt but that it has been the distinguished 

 favourite of thousands, in all ages and in all coun- 

 tries, wherever it could be met with, from the earliest 

 times down to the present ; and a singular predilec- 

 tion in its favour at the present day seems to be 



