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JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



that lie had a Carnation with yellow flowers, " the which," he 

 says, " a worshipfull merchant of London, Master Nicholas 

 Letc, procured from Poland, and gave me thereof for my garden, 

 which before that time was never seenc nor heard of in there 

 countries." Parkinson enumerates by name 49 kinds of Carna- 

 tions which were cultivated in the time of Charles I. ; and the 

 largest and principal kind of Carnation was then distinguished 

 by the name of the Old English Carnation. Rea observes in his 

 " Flora," published in 16G5, that we had formerly many good 

 kinds, but that few of them were then to be found in any of 

 our gardens. " Of these Dutch flowers," he observes, " I have 

 known more than 100 distinct varieties, by several names, all of 

 them fair, large, and double flowers." In a later edition of 

 Rea's il Flora " 3G0 good sorts of Carnations are enumerated. 

 Forskal, the Swedish traveller, and a pupil of Linnasus, observed 

 the species in cultivation in Arabia and Egypt, and in the gardens 

 of Constantinople. Ksempfer and Thunberg found it a favourite 

 flower in Japan, where it was called " Iammasiye." In the 

 early part of the present century also Roxburgh and Graham 

 observed it under cultivation in India. 



Although the species is cultivated in all countries, its native 

 habitat seems to be extremely limited, as it is only really wild in 

 the N.W. of France, the N. of Italy, the littoral provinces of 

 Austria, and the N.W. part of India. In the Floras of most of 

 the European countries it is recorded, but only as a more or less 

 naturalised species. Schultes named a Tyrolese form " D. caryo- 

 phylloides " because he was unable to think that D. Caryo- 

 phyllus could really be wild there. The typical form of the 

 wild Carnation is casspitose, glaucous, and glabrous in habit ; 

 the stems paniculately branched above, rarely quite simple, more 

 or less angular below, jointed and tumid at the nodes ; leaves 

 linear, obtuse, recurved, very long, with the uppermost bractei- 

 form. Bracts of the calyx four, obovate, mucronate, coriaceous, 

 and adpressed to the tube ; calyx contracted above, teeth lanceo- 

 late, acuminate, 9-nerved. Petals dentate, beardless, contiguous, 

 rose-coloured or white. Stamens equalling or overtopping the 

 styles, capsule ovoid, and seeds peltate. In England the plant 

 is naturalised on Rochester Castle, and possibly in a few other 

 places. 



