THE ORIGIN OF THE FLORIST S CARNATION. 



809 



The pique tted carnation, with its fringe of short lines, was in 

 high perfection in the time of Thomas Hogg, say 1839, and the 

 wire-edged flower was then unknown, or at least was a rarity, 

 but was in process of formation. We have in this a perfect 

 analogy with the edged auricula, which I have shown was 

 obtained by pushing outwards the stripes that radiated from the 

 centre until, as we may say, the colour accumulated at the 

 margin in a close, dense, sharply-defined ring. The wire- edge 

 picotee is a parallel instance, for precisely the same process has 

 taken place, and may be said to represent fully 300 years of 

 the florist's work. .It will be seen that in the wild carnation 

 and in many other species of dianthus the colours radiate in 

 bands, lines, and dots from the centre ; and there is a tendency 

 always for some kind of emphasis at the edges, whether in serra- 

 tures, or less colour, or more colour ; Nature showing a distinct 

 intention of denning the form not only with the scissors but 

 with the paint-brush. 



Seeing how slow has been the progress of the flower, there 

 can be no extravagance in assuming that it was brought here by 

 the Romans to qualify the beverages of the country, and became 

 the pet of the florists in later ages through the habit of varying 

 it had acquired, and its consequent suitability for their mode of 

 operations. In all the centuries of its slow transformation it 

 has contributed to human happiness, and that is something ; if 

 we compare the favourite flowers of to-day with the wilding that 

 we regard as their parent, we shall see reason to congratulate 

 the florists on having done something by their centuries of 

 delightful work, for at the end of the comparison we may say 

 that they have made something out of nothing. As a flower for 

 criticism while the prize flowers are before us we may dismiss 

 Dianthus caryophyllus as little better than nothing at all. 



We began by asking for the parentage of the carnation. I 

 beg of you to note that in the history of the flower as now 

 hastily and imperfectly sketched, no such changes have appeared 

 as would warrant the assumption or suspicion of a mixed 

 parentage. We do not anywhere see an ancestor's long nose 

 suddenly obtruding in the portrait gallery, or hear of gout 

 brought into the family through some particular marriage. In 

 the progress of the flower the lines are always forward, they 

 never cross, and we do not recognise what the raisers of seedlings 



