C A E NATION C 0 N FE R E NC E . 



flower-lieads, from the protruding awns of the bracts and floral 

 leaves, or from the distinctly bearded condition of the petals. 

 It was also figured and described by Paul de Keneaulme in 1G11 

 under the name of Thyrsis, of which he says : " It is so called 

 because it has flowers crowded together in the form of a thyrsus ; 

 recent writers call it Armerius, and in France it is known as 

 Armoiries." The Sweet-william may be taken as the type of 

 that sub-genus of Pinks in which the flowers are clustered and 

 numerous. 



The Maiden Pink, or D. deltoides, is the most widely dis- 

 tributed, as a native species, of all the Pinks, and occurs from 

 Norway and Northern Russia, southward to North Africa and 

 Bengal, and from Scotland eastward to Japan. It was first 

 recorded by Lobel in 1581 by the name of "Armeria sylvestris," 

 and Gerard in his " Herball " says : " There is a wild creeping pink 

 which groweth in our pastures neere about London and in other 

 places, but especially in the great field next to Deptford by the 

 pathside as you go from Redriffe to Greenwich, which hath many 

 small tender leaves shorter than any other of the wild pinks, 

 set upon little tender stalks, which lie flat upon the ground, 

 taking hold of the same in sundry places, whereby it greatly 

 increaseth, whereupon grow little reddish flowers. The root is 

 small, tough, and long lasting." An old English name for it is 

 " Sop-in- wine." This pretty Pink is found on grassy slopes, 

 roadsides, and dry pastures ; it flourishes on soils of primitive or 

 volcanic origin, e.g. in France on the syenite of the Vosges and 

 the basalt of Auvergne, in Spain in the subalpine districts of 

 the mountains of Castile, and in England on dry meadow-land 

 in the eastern counties. As I noticed before, this plant is the 

 origin of the Early Red Pinks. 



The various forms of the Common Pink are derived from 

 D-. phtmarius, which is indigenous in Piedmont, Austria, and 

 Central Russia. It is naturalised on old walls in several places 

 in this country — at Shalford in Surrey, on Haughmond Abbey in 

 Shropshire, and on Conway Castle in Wales. This is probably 

 the " piggesnie " of Chaucer, and is referred by Prior to one or 

 more forms of cultivated Pinks. The wild Pink was cultivated 

 in its improved double state in the time of Elizabeth ; and 

 Gerard is the first writer who calls them " Pinks or wild gillo- 

 flovers," frcm their being smaller than the Clove-gilloflower or 



