CARNATION. 
701 
zia; and the other genera of the order are alsine, | they what they may, which have not a ground 
cerastium, elatine, stellaria, arenaria, ortegia, 
mollugo, buffonia, holosteum, spergulastrum, 
cherleria, sagina, drymaria, spergula, larbrea, 
pharnaceum, meehringia, and bergia. 
But though Dianthus caryophyllus is the car- 
nation of botanists, only the variety of it botani- 
cally designated Dianthus caryophyllus flore-pleno 
is the carnation of florists, The normal or single- 
flowering plants of the species, though compris- 
ing some permanent subvarieties, and many fugi- 
tive or seminal subvarieties, and though possess- 
ing all the fragrance and much of the beauty 
of the species, are never permitted a place ina 
garden collection of carnations, and seldom dig- 
nified, in any part of the parterre, with a higher 
name than that of clove-pinks. Two other thor- 
oughly established varieties of the species, D. c. 
fruticosus and D. c. imbricatus, also possess great 
beauty, and yet are popularly kept separate from 
the fellowship of the carnations, and designated 
respectively the shrubby carnation and the im- 
bricated white-ear. Yet while only the variety 
D. ¢. flore-pleno is permitted to wear the garden 
honours of the carnation, it comprises a suffi- 
ciency of subvarieties to gratify the most capa- 
cious taste, and a sportive power of self-variega- 
tion sufficiently active and multitudinous to 
keep even a morbid love of novelty in constant 
play. 
The carnation, in its normal or botanical sense, 
may be gathered wild on the south side of the 
Swiss Alps, and may occasionally, though very 
rarely, be seen wild about walls in England. 
But the carnation, in the floricultural or popular 
sense, is wholly the result of cultivation, and 
can be propagated or even maintained only by 
artificial aid. It is not noticed by Pliny or any 
of the Roman poets, and probably was unknown 
to floriculture at the period of the Roman em- 
pire; yet it has, for several centuries, been cul- 
tivated in most parts of Europe, and held in high 
esteem, for both its fragrance and its beauty, 
throughout a large portion of the civilized world. 
The number of named and much-esteemed sub- 
varieties of it, at the beginning of the eighteenth 
century, was nearly four hundred; the number 
of new, good, named subvarieties has, for a cen- 
tury past, received an annual increase in almost 
every considerable district of Kuropean gardens; 
and thousands of seedlings, somewhat new in 
character, but wanting sufficient interest to com- 
mand more than the most momentary attention, 
are annually produced by florists and amateurs. 
As excellent and very beautiful subvarieties have 
multiplied, taste has become increasingly fasti- 
dious; and now it not only condemns all flowers 
of defective shapes, feeble power of development, 
or bad mixtures of colours, but rejects from the 
very name of carnations all flowers of Dianthus 
caryophyllus flore-pleno which have the pervading 
red colour of “the clove-pink,” all which have 
yellow for their ground colour, and all others, be 
colour of pure, unspotted, untinged white. 
All carnations, understood within these re- 
strictions, are classified into bizarres, flakes, and 
picotees; and those of each of these classes are 
distributed into two or more subdivisions. Bi- 
zarres are striped with two colours on their 
white ground, and have these colours in irregu- 
lar variegations ; flakes are striped with one col- 
our on their white ground, and have their stripes 
large, and extending quite across the petals; 
and the picotees are pounced and spotted in a 
great diversity of manner on their white ground, 
and have, in general, a smaller size and a har- 
dier habit than the other classes. ‘The bizarres, 
in many instances, have a greater proportion of 
one of their striping colours than of the other; 
yet those are esteemed the best which exhibit 
the two colours in nearly equal proportions, and 
have the stripes running parallel to one another, 
and distributed equally over the flower. Some 
flakes have too much of striping colour, and 
others have too little ; those being the best which 
exhibit the striping colour and the ground col- 
our in well-balanced proportion. The picotees 
were formerly regarded as having, for a distin- 
guishing character, fringed or notched edges 
round their petals; but all such picotees as pos- 
sess this character are now regarded as deformed ; 
and those are esteemed the best which have a 
smooth edge, or what is technically termed a 
rose leaf, with the colours bright, clear, and very 
decidedly marked. Scarlet bizarres are striped, 
upon their white ground, with scarlet and dark 
maroon; and the several kinds of them differ 
from one another in the intensity of these col- 
ours. Crimson bizarres are striped, upon their 
white ground, with either pink and purple, or 
rose-colour and purple; and those which have 
shades of pink have a livelier and lighter ap- 
pearance than those which have shades of rose- 
colour. Flakes are distributed into three sub- 
divisions,—one with scarlet stripes, one with 
rose or pink stripes, and one with various hues 
of purple; but each subdivision has great diver- 
sity in the depth and shading of its characteris- 
tic colour. Picotees comprise very numerous and 
widely different varieties; and are distributed 
into four subdivisions, with respectively scarlet, 
crimson, rose, and purple colours. Hach of the 
subdivisions of picotees, also, is distributed into 
two groups,—the one heavy-edged, with the col- 
our thickly laid on round the margin of the pe- 
tals,—and the other feathered, or light-edged, 
with the colour touching the petals in an unbro- 
ken delicate line. 
The proper cultivation of prime carnations has 
been a topic of very varied and exceedingly co- 
pious discussion; yet may be most satisfactorily 
disposed of in a single paragraph. The soil may 
be either two-thirds of rotted turf and one-third 
cow-dung, or equal parts of loam, leaf-mould, 
and cow-dung; and if it should seem too strong 
eeeinimenines heen nen se ene ISL to Sete 
