THE CARNATION FAMILY. 231 



THE CARNATION FAMILY (Caryophyllacece). 



A large group of herbaceous plants having opposite leaves 

 and tumid or swollen joints, and represented in our gardens 

 by Pinks, Carnations, Sweet -Williams, and a few other 

 popular flowers, mostly hardy. Even the species which are 

 found near the equator grow at such high altitudes as to 

 be hardy in northern latitudes. As a rule, all the plants 

 in this group seed most profusely, and their propagation by 

 seeds, cuttings, layers, or division, is very easy. The principal 

 genera found in gardens are Alsine, Arenaria, Stellaria^ 

 Cerastium, Dianthus (Pinks), Saponaria, Gypsophila, Silene, 

 Viscaria, Agrostemma (Corn-cockle), Lychnis, Cucubalus, and 

 others. Artificial fertilisation and hybridisation is very easy in 

 this group, hence the great variety of Pinks, Cloves, Carnations, 

 and Sweet-Williams in our gardens ; and even in a state of nature 

 hybrids are found. Thus numerous hybrids intermediate 

 between Dianthus monspessulanus and D. Seguieri are found 

 on the mountains of Auvergne. D. sinensis (D. Heddewigii, 

 Hort.) and D. barbatus, together with D. caryophyllus, are also 

 in an extreme state of seminal variability, partly induced by 

 cultivation, and the tendency further augmented by hybridism 

 and cross-breeding. It is a common occurrence to see different- 

 coloured flowers in the same inflorescence of D. barbatus, 

 these being cases of reversion to one or other of the characters 

 possessed by the former parents of the individual. About 

 1834 M. Pepin, a Continental florist, obtained hybrids between 

 Lychnis (Agrostemma] flos-jovis and L. coronaria, the flowers 

 being large, and produced in large corymbose clusters. The 

 genus Linum is sometimes included here, and these being 

 mostly annuals, are freely multiplied by seeds. Z. trigynum, a 

 showy yellow-flowered greenhouse shrub, is readily propagated 

 by cuttings. 



Dianthus (Pinks). A very popular genus of, for the most 

 part, hardy perennials, of which our garden Pinks, Carnations, 

 and Sweet-Williams, are well known and deliciously fragrant 

 examples. D. sinensis, or Chinese Pink, is an annual of 

 which there are innumerable varieties, easily propagated by 

 sowing seeds in autumn in a pit or frame, or in the open 

 beds or borders in April. The Carnation and the common 

 garden Pink are both supposed to have originated from D. 

 caryophyllus, or Clove-scented Pink ; but it is difficult to say 

 with any degree of certainty exactly what plants were the 

 parents of these old garden flowers, since they have been 



