﻿Perennial. — Flowers in Jane and July. 



Root rather woody, branching at the crown. Herbage of a 

 sea-green colour (glaucous) . Stem upright, jointed, branched in 

 a panicled manner. Leaves strap-shaped, channelled, fascicu- 

 lated ; margins smooth, entire, except just above the base, where 

 they are minutely toothed or fringed. Flowers solitary, fragrant, 

 at the top of each branch. Bracteas ( scales at the base of the 

 calyx) 4, broadly egg-shaped, pointed, not a quarter so long as 

 the tube, the two outermost narrower than the inner ones, which 

 are broader than they are long. Petals broad, smooth, varying 

 from a pale flesh-colour to a deep red ; their outer edge sharply 

 toothed. 



The drawing was made from a plant which flowered in the 

 Oxford Botanic Garden in 1833, and which was, in 1831, pre- 

 sented to that establishment, from an old wall at Rochester Castle, 

 by the Rev. G. E. Smith, of St. John’s College, and author of a 

 “ Catalogue of the Plants of South Kent.” 



The white flowered variety, fig. 7, is from a plant which had, in 

 1833, established itself on a wall belonging to Mr. Wilson, Porter 

 of Worcester College. 



Dianthus Caryophy' llus is the origin of all our beautiful varieties 

 of Garden Carnations. 



The common Pheasant’s-eye Pink, Didnthus arenarius of Hud- 

 son (not of Linnaeus) has by many Botanists been considered 

 only a variety of the preceding ; but the Rev. G. E. Smith has, 

 and I think very justly, determined it to be specifically different 

 from that species, and has named it Dianthus Hudsoni. It differs 

 from D. Caryophyllus in the margins of the leaves being minutely 

 serrated, from the base to the point ; in the petals being more or 

 less hairy at the disk near the claw ; and in their outer margin 

 being more deeply and more irregularly cut. Specimens, and 

 living plants of this species, from Weston-hanger, in Kent, were 

 sent to the Oxford Garden, in October, 1831, by the Rev. G. E. 

 Smith. — This species is the origin of the Garden Pink, of which 

 there are so many double varieties. 



“ Gardeners,” observes Dr. Withering, “ well know that from the seed of 

 the Carnation, Pinks are never obtained, nor from that of Pinks can Carnations 

 be procured. In fact these favourite flowers originate from distinct species, and 

 are not mere varieties of the same, as has been erroneously, and even recently, 

 intimated. The art of floriculture, sometimes despised with a reprehensible de- 

 gree of fastidiousness, has in this instance transformed a plant comparatively 

 obscure, into one of the most delightful charms which the lap of Flora contains. 

 The surpiising metamorphoses which the most indifferent are accustomed to 

 contemplate with pleasure, were probably commenced beneath a more genial 

 sky than that of Britain ; for we learn from Pliny, that these productions were 

 unknown to the Greeks, and equally so to the Romans until the Augustan age, 

 when they were obtained from the brave Biscayans, as one trophy resulting from 

 the conquest of that province, and were thence called Cantabrica. Our gar- 

 dens may now receive embellishments from more than 300 different kinds of 

 Carnations, under the denomination of Flakes, Bizarres, and Picotees (Picquet- 

 tes, spotted) ; and these may be propagated by cuttings, but more succesfully 

 by layers about the month of July. Surely floriculture must at least be deemed 

 an innocent amusement ; and that which could excite the admiration of the 

 most powerful intellect cannot be altogether insignificant.” Botannical Ar- 

 rangement, v. ii. p. 539. 



