ON FOUR DOORYARD FLOWERS 



with this curious manifestation of color heredity, 

 that the carnation has been under cultivation from 

 an early historical period. The name Dianthus, 

 signifying divine power, is said to have been given 

 it by Theoprastus three hundred years before 

 Christ. 



The flesh color of the original carnation was 

 broken up into red and white more than three 

 centuries ago. Since then multitudes of varieties 

 have been developed. Yet there is a strong pro- 

 pensity in this flower to hold to uniformity of color 

 as regards any individual flower. That is to say, 

 carnations in general are likely to be uniformly 

 scarlet or uniformly pink or uniformly white. 

 There are variegated forms, to be sure, but these 

 are exceptional. 



This tendency of the flower to hold to one color 

 or another may at least be recalled with interest in 

 connection with the curious propensity of the tri- 

 colored hybrid to give recognition to the different 

 colors of its parents in the same flower in 

 successive periods of time. 



But however the anomaly may be explained, 

 the tri-colored carnation was an interesting flower, 

 whether considered from the standpoint of the 

 horticulturist or from that of a student of 

 hereditary. 



I have produced no other variant of corre- 



[123] 



