128 THE FORMAL GARDEN IN ENGLAND vi 



and thyme. Five designs for knots are given 

 in The Gardener' s Labyrinth^ which were 

 to be formed entirely of hyssop or thyme. 

 In The Countrie Housewife's Garden (1617) 

 Lawson gives " divers new knots for gardens," 

 viz. : — 



Cinkfoyle 

 Flowers de luce 

 Trefoyle 

 Frette 



Maze 



Lozenges 

 Grose-boowe 

 Diamond 

 Ovall 



All the flowers and herbs for these should, 

 he says, be planted by Michaeltide. The 

 borders were to be of " Roses, thorne. Lavender, 

 rosemaris, isop, sage, or such like," and filled 

 in with cowslips, primroses, and violets, " Dafly- 

 downdillies," "sweet Sissely," "go to bed at 

 noone," and all sweet flowers, and, chief of all, 

 with gillyflowers, the favourite flower of the 

 English Renaissance — " July flowers, commonly 

 called Gillyflowers,^ or clove Jully flowers (I 



^ The name carnation gradually superseded the name gillyflower. 

 Worlidge refers to it as the vulgar name for gillyflower. "• Carnation " 

 was at first used to describe one species, but came to be used for gilly- 

 flowers in general. Lawson's play upon words is pretty but improbr'ble. 

 Gillyflower is possibly a corruption of Gu'us, Fleur. A full account of 

 this flower and its various species will be found in Gerard's Herbal, chap. 

 172. Of clove Gillyflowers, Gerard says that these flowers were pro- 

 cured from Poland by a worshipful merchant of London, Master 

 Nicholas Lett, and given to him for his garden ; and that they had 

 never before "been seen or heard of in these countries," and further that 

 fresh varieties were being constantly introduced into England.. He con- 

 sidered them not inferior to the Rose " in beauty, smell, and varietie." 

 Matthiolus, in his commentary on Dioscorides, p. 316, says that they 

 were called in France " Girophles," again probably a corruption of the 

 Latin name " Caryophyllus." 



