i^^'-v. 



THE 

 CLOVE CARNATION, 



ll'uiinhus iiirijoplujUiK. 



T is impossible to determine with 

 exactitude which amongst our 

 g'urdeu flowers is the oldest in the 

 history of floriculture. But this 

 is certain, that the carnation is 

 one of the oldest; and as an 

 English flower it is joossibly older 

 than the tulip, which, it must lie 

 C(.infessed, will run a close race 

 with it when the question is con- 

 sidered from a florist's point of 

 view. As ti> tlie origin of the 

 llower, it is bej'ond doubt the 

 offspring of a wilding of the 

 south of Europe ; and it is pro- 

 bahle Plinj' is correct in saying 

 — as in his twenty-fifth book he 

 d<:ics — that it was discovered in 

 Spain in the days of Augustus 

 Ctesar. The " cantabrica,^'' which we take to be the car- 

 nation, was, he saj's, employed by the Spaniards to give 

 a spicy flavonr to their beverages, thus antedating the 

 " soppes in wine" to which our old English writers occa= 



3W 



