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JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL II DRTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



the Carnation, which was also known at that time in English 

 gardens. Maddock, whose book on gardening was a standard 

 work just a century ago, lays down as the criterion of a fine 

 double Pink that " the stem should be strong, elastic, and erect, 

 and not less than 12 inches high ; the calyx rather smaller 

 and shorter, but nearly similar in form and proportion to that of 

 a carnation, as well as the formation of the flower, which should 

 not be less than 2| inches in diameter ; the petals should be 

 large, broad, and substantial, and have very fine fringed or 

 serrated edges, free from large, coarse, deep notches or inden- 

 tures — in short, they approach nearest to perfection when the 

 fringe on the edge is so fine as scarcely to be discernible ; but it 

 would be considered a very desirable object to obtain them per- 

 fectly rose-leaved, i.e. without any fringe at all ; the broadest 

 part of the lamina, or broad end of the petals, should be perfectly 

 white and distinct from the eye, unless it be a laced Pink, i.e. 

 ornamented by a continuation of the colour of the eye round it, 

 bold, clean, and distinct, leaving a considerable proportion of 

 white in the centre, perfectly free from any tinge or spot. The 

 eye should consist of a bright or dark rich crimson, or purple, 

 resembling velvet ; but the nearer it approaches to black, the 

 more it is esteemed ; its proportion should be about equal to 

 that of the white, that it may neither appear too large nor too 

 small." Parkinson also enumerates many fine varieties that 

 were favourites in the time of Charles I. This plant in its 

 natural state may be considered as the type of the fimbriate 

 species, though it is not so widely scattered as the D. superbus. 



The next species is the China Pink, or D. sinensis, with 

 which should be united the remarkably polymorphic D. Seguieri 

 of the European flora. This plant was known to Tournefort, 

 who calls it " Caryophyllus sinensis supinus." The seeds of 

 this Dianthus were first sent from China to Paris by the French 

 missionaries about the year 1705 ; but the double varieties of these 

 flowers had not been seen before the year 1719, when they were 

 frequent in some of the Paris gardens. Aiton notices the intro- 

 duction of the China Pink into England as early as 1713 ; but 

 Miller was certainly unacquainted with it in 1724, as he describes 

 the Indian Pink as bearing yellow flowers only, and tells us that 

 he takes the description from the written account of Mons. 

 Liger ; but as that author's work was published in 1703, two 



