OP ORNAMENTAL ANNUALS. 
Ill 
G. TENELLA, Poir. 
A rock-plant with very slender stems and pink or white flowers ; introduced in 1810, but from what country 
is not known. 
G. ROKEJEKA, Del. 
Flowers white, striped with purple, and capsules globose. A native of Egypt. 
G. COMPRESSA, Desf. 
Greatly resembling the preceding species. A native of Barbary. 
GENUS IY. 
DIANTHUS, Lin. THE PINK. 
Lin. Syst. DECANDRIA DIGYNIA. 
Generic Character. —Calyx tubular, 5-toothed, furnished -with 2—6 imbricate, opposite scales at the base. Petals 5, with long claws. 
Stamens 10. Styles 2. Capsule 1-celled. Seeds compressed.—( G. Don.) 
Description, &c. —Perhaps no flowers are better known or more generally cultivated than the perennial 
plants belonging to this genus. The pink, the carnation, and the sweet-william, are in every garden, and are 
universal favourites. The annual kinds are not so well known ; and, as they are mostly English weeds, they 
are but seldom cultivated. The most popular annual garden flower of the genus is the Chinese pink, Dianthus 
chinensis; which, though generally called a biennial in books, will both produce its flowers and ripen its seeds 
the same year that it is sown. 
1.—-DIANTHUS CHINENSIS, Lin. THE CHINESE PINK. 
Engravings. — Dot. Mag. t. 28, and our fig. 1, in Plate 20. 
Variety. —D. c. 2; flore pleno, Hort ., has the flowers semi-double. 
Specific Character. —Stem branched, flowers solitary, or some¬ 
what aggregate; calycine scales linear-lanceolate, leafy, cuspidate, 
spreading, equal in length with the tube ; petals toothed, purple or 
white, spotted with red ; leaves lanceolate, pale green.— (G. Don.) 
Description, &c. —The variety of colours produced by these flowers is so great, that in a large bed of 
seedlings, scarcely two will be found alike. Their shades, however, only vary from a rich dark crimson to pink 
and white, but the various manners in which these colours are combined and varied almost exceed belief. This 
astonishing variety renders the Chinese pink very valuable for flower-gardens, though it is entirely destitute of 
the fragrance of its perennial relations, the carnation and common pink. The Chinese pink is a native of China, 
from which country it was brought to Paris by some French missionaries in 1705. It was afterwards sent to 
England, according to the Hortus Keicensis , in 1713, and has since been constantly in cultivation. When left 
to itself it is decidedly an annual, but it may be preserved two or more years by cutting off the seed-pods the 
moment the flowers begin to decay, and never suffering it to ripen seed. Most annuals, if sheltered from frost 
during winter, may be preserved in a similar manner. The seeds of the Chinese pink should be sown in a dry 
warm border in April, or they may be sown in a hot-bed in February and planted out in May. When trans¬ 
planted, care should be taken not to break the ball of earth round the roots. The plants seldom require thinning. 
