248 THE ASSOCIATIONS OF FLOWERS 
more than half a dozen spots in our island where it may 
be found wild. When transplanted to a garden, it soon 
assumes a different appearance ; and the little castle pink 
would not be recognised, on another summer, in the bed 
of the garden, as the wild-flower which had last year 
greeted us from its lofty abode. The infrequent occur- 
ence of this pink compels the florist to receive the greater 
number of carnations from countries where it is more 
abundant. The carnation was first introduced into British 
gardens from Germany, in which country its culture re- 
ceives considerable attention. 
The varieties of carnation amount to several hundreds ; 
but the names, having been given by gardeners, are quite 
arbitrary, and convey little or no idea of the nature or 
habits of the respective plants. Cultivators have arranged 
them into three principal divisions. Flakes, which are 
striped with two colours only, and of which the stripes 
are broad; bizarres, from the French word signifying odd, 
which are irregularly marked and of several colours ; and 
the picotees, from “ piquette ' ' (spotted), because they 
have a white or yellow ground spotted with some gay 
colour. The picotees are generally smaller flowers than 
the other carnations. Many carnations are brought from 
Italy and those flowery lands the islands of the Medi- 
terranean. 
Among the sweet tribe of pinks we must not omit the 
common and handsome border flower, the sweet-v/illiam 
(Dianthus barbatus), with its large tufts of crimson or 
rose-coloured blossoms. It is an old favourite, because 
it is so hardy that it will grow in any garden, and even 
the little child may tend it and call it his own. It for- 
merly bore the name of “London tuftes,” and received 
its Latin distinction, “barbatus,” from the bearded nature 
of its calyx. The old botanist Gerarde praises it “ for its 
beauty, to deck up the bosoms of the beautiful, and gar- 
lands and crowns for pleasure;” but few besides cottage 
maidens now ornament themselves with it. Like the large 
feather-like leaves of the carrot, which the ladies of 
Charles the Second’s time used as plumes for their hair, 
it has given way to ornaments less beautiful, perhaps, but 
more costly. 
The carnation and pink are the pride of the natural 
