THE 

 SWEET WILLIAM. 



Dianthus barbatus. 



ARROW-LEAVED varieties of 

 this useful flower are called in 

 the old books " Sweet Johns," 

 and the broad-leaved " Sweet 

 Williams." We speak of the 

 carnations and pinks as the 

 true gilly-nowers, and have 

 ample authority for so doing. 

 But at the present time the 

 gilly-flower of the midland 

 counties is the wallflower, and 

 in old times the wallflower was 

 called the sweet william. These 

 confusions of popular names 

 serve as a perpetual justifica- 

 tion for the use of the Latin 

 names of plants whenever it is 

 intended to specify particular 

 things, and leave no margin 

 for the exercise of fancy or 

 the changeable vagaries of 

 custom. The plant before us 

 is Dianthus barbatus, the bearded pink, and the name 



applies to this and no other. 



The French know it as 



