DIANTHUS CARYOPHYLLUS. 
CARNATION. Var. Yellow Picotee. 
Class. Order. 
DECANDRIA. DYGYNIA. 
Natural Order. 
CARYOPHYLLEJ3. 
Native of 
Height. 
Flowers in 
Duration. 
Cultivated 
England. 
2 feet. 
June, Aug. 
Perennial. 
in 1597. 
No. 137. 
Dianthus, we have previously had occasion to 
notice, as derived from the Greek, Dios, anthos, 
Jove’s Flower. Caryophyllus is believed to have 
been a name originally formed by the Greek mer- 
chants for our Asiatic spice, the clove, out of ka- 
ru on, a nut, and phullon, a leaf, from their con- 
ceiving it to be the leaf only of a species of Indian 
nut; though we think, more probably, from the head 
of the spice, which is literally composed of leaves, 
being similar to a small nut. Most of our young 
readers know that the Clove is not the fruit, but 
merely a dried germen or seed bud, with the unex- 
panded blossom. This term, Caryophyllus, was 
afterwards adopted from the scent of the flower. 
Carnation seems to have been formed from the 
Latin carnis, of flesh ; from the flesh-colour of some 
varieties of this flower. Though some say from 
coronation, the flowers being used on such festive oc- 
casions. Linneus, in his reformed system, could not 
retain Caiyophyllus as the generic name, there being 
no natural relation whatever between the carnation 
and the spice plant ; but as it had been so long esta- 
blished, he continued it as a secondary or trivial 
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