94 WOOD AND GARDEN 



hold of the gardener's heart is the Carnation — the 

 Clove Gilliflower of our ancestors. Why the good old 

 name " Gilliflower " has gone out of use it is impossible 

 to say, for certainly the popularity of the flower has 

 never waned. Indeed, in the seventeenth century it 

 seems that it was the best-loved flower of all in Eng- 

 land ; for John Parkinson, perhaps our earliest writer 

 on garden plants, devotes to it a whole chapter in his 

 " Paradisus Terrestris," a distinction shared by few other 

 flowers. He describes no less than fifty kinds, a few 

 of which are still to be recognised, though some are 

 lost. For instance, what has become of the " great gray 

 Huh" which he describes as a plant of the largest and 

 strongest habit ? The " gray " in this must refer to 

 the colour of the leaf, as he says the flower is red ; but 

 there is also a variety called the " blew M^do" with 

 flowers of a " purplish murrey " colouring, answering to 

 the slate colour that we know as of not imfrequent 

 occurrence. The branch of the famUy that we still 

 cultivate as " Painted Lady " is named by him " Dainty 

 Lady," the present name being no doubt an accidental 

 and regrettable corruption. But though some of the 

 older sorts may be lost, we have such a wealth of good 

 known kinds that this need hardly be a matter of 

 regret. The old red Clove always holds its own for 

 hardiness, beauty, and perfume ; its newer and dwarfer 

 variety, Paul Engleheart, is quite indispensable, while 

 the beautiful salmon-coloured Raby is perhaps the 

 most useful of all, with its hardy constitution and great 



