SHAKESPEARE’S GARDEN 
59 
It is found wild over the whole of Europe and Asia 
and in Western Africa, and its countless varieties, 
single, semi-double, and double, ranging from snowy 
white to purplish-black, are a great ornament in an 
old-world garden. Only once is the plant men¬ 
tioned, and then the reference is to the strong 
narcotic juice, which has been used as a drug by 
man since the Bronze Age, and has done more 
than any other decoction to debase the minds of 
its votaries. It is not truly wild in our islands, 
though a not uncommon escape. It is mentioned in 
connection with mandrakes in Othello, III. iii. 33 0. 
England has several species of pinks habiting its 
fields, woods, and pastures, but it is hardly likely that 
the poet refers to any of these, sweet and dainty as 
they are. He thinks of the garden, of the carnation 
and gilliflower, of the many “ pied ” varieties the 
Elizabethan gardeners produced, apart from hybrids. 
Gerard grew the sweet william, still a great favour¬ 
ite, and deservedly so, called by scientists Dianthus 
harhatus, L., a native of Central Europe. It has 
hybridized into a hundred forms, now white, now 
all but black, and another several shades of pink 
and white in one cyme. The old name sops-in-wine, 
or sops, used for carnations, suggests the modern use 
of sweet herbs, such as woodruff, in the mingled wines 
called by the Rhenish peasants “ bola.” It seems to 
have been specially used to flavour the bridal wine. 
See Taming of the Shrew, III. ii. 174 : 
Quaffed off the muscadel, 
And threw the sops all in the sexton’s face. 
The word “carnation” is said by Prior to be derived 
from Coronaria, and represents the Vetonica coronaria 
of early herbalists, because its flowers were used in 
chaplets, and he quotes in illustration Spenser’s 
“ Shepherd’s Calendar ” : 
