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JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER. 
February  24,  1898. 
examples — has  been  referred  to  a  like  origin.  But  we  cannot  forget 
that  this  word  was  an  appellative  which  included  several  distinct 
flowers.  Wallflowers,  for  instance,  being  called  Wall-,  Yellow-,  and 
Winter-gillyflowers;  the  common  Stock,  White-  and  Stock-gilly¬ 
flowers  ;  Hesperis  matronalis-  Queen-  and  English-gillyflowers ;  and 
the  white  and  red  Campions,  Wild  Gillyflowers. 
I  have  sometimes  thought  that  “  Gillyflower  ”  may  have,  indeed 
originated  as  a  name  descriptive  of  those  flowers  which  were  worn  on 
all  occasions  of  festivity  by  young  women,  the  common  name  of 
whom  was  “  Gill,”  in  the  same  way  as  the  young  men  of  the  same 
class  of  society  were  known  by  the  soubriquet  of  “  Jack.”  Sir  Walter 
Scott  mentions  as  curious  an  old  belief  that  Gillyflowers  were  planted 
around  the  gates  of  Paradise.  In  this  connection  the  word  may  not 
refer  to  the  flower  at  all,  nor  in  the  old  ballad  of  “  Clerk  Saunders,” 
where  May  Margaret  is  assured  concerning  certain  women  that 
Their  beds  are  made  in  the  heavens  high, 
Down  at  the  feet  of  our  good  Lord’s  knee. 
Well  set  about  wi’  Gillyflowers, 
I  wot,  good  company  for  to  see. 
“July  flowers”  is  a  designation  as  applied  to  Carnations  about 
which  there  is  no  difficulty.  It  was  first  used  by  William  Lawson 
in  “The  Countrie  Housewife’s  Garden”  (1618).  He  says,  “I  call 
them  so  (J uly  flowers)  because  they  flower  in  July.”  “  Sops-in-wine” 
is  a  somewhat  older  name  than  the  last.  It  appears  to  have  been  used 
first  of  all  as  one  of  the  many  names  borne  by  Medicago  sativa.  But 
we  know  from  the  Glosse  to  Spenser’s  “  Shepheard’s  Kalendcr  ”  that  it 
was  also  “  a  flower  much  like  to  a  Coronation,  but  differing  in 
smell  and  quantity.”  In  1581,  a  year  or  so  later  than  Spenser’s 
Pastoral,  it  appears  along  with  “Jillyfloures  Coronations”  and  other 
flowers  in  LiUie’s  “Euphues  and  his  England,” 
It  has  been  thought  that  the  name  arose  from  the  flowers  having 
been  employed  as  flavouring  agents  in  wine  and  beer,  Steevens, 
however,  in  a  note  to  Shakespeare  affirms  that  it  “  borrowed  its 
name”  from  a  long-forgotten  custom  that  followed  closely  the  con¬ 
clusion  of  the  marriage  ceremony.  This  was  the  drinking  by  the 
bride  and  bridegroom  from  a  bowl  consecrated  wine  and  wafers  to 
which  the  very  old  name  of  “  Sops-in-vvine ”  was  given.  “Sops-in- 
wine  ”  again  as  a  flower  was  “  worne  of  paramours.”  It  seems  to 
have  been  the  same  single  form  a.s  that  mentioned  in  “The  King’s 
Q  ihair,”  and  to  have  had  some  meaning  as  a  token  between  lovers. 
Not  crowned  till  later,  “  King  ”  James  looked  upon  the  flowers  sent 
him  by  the  Princess  in  that  light,  and  it  has  no  doubt  some  connection 
unreported  to  us  with  the  “contracting  cup”  of  the  marriage 
ceremony. 
This  name  appears  to  have  been  superseded  by  “  Clove  Gilly¬ 
flower,”  the  single  variety.  Both  this  and  its  double  form  continued 
for  generations  a  favourite  flower  with  Englishmen  of  all  classes. 
The  double  form  is  pourtrayed  in  Hill’s  “  Eden”  (1757),  and  is  a 
variety  with  few  petals,  rough,  and  with  edges  deeply  serrated. 
Single  and  double  are  both  mentioned  in  1789  by  Abercromby ;  but 
in  1820  Hogg  declares  them  to  be  lost  to  gardens. 
The  single  Clove  Gillyflower  was  the  type  employed  for  the  few 
economic  purposes  to  which  the  Carnation  was  put.  These  included 
a  syrup  and  a  conserve  of  the  flowers  which  Culpepper  informs  us 
were  good  “against  the  plague.”  Evelyn  mentions  the  use  of  Clove 
Gillyflower  in  vinegar,  and  by  the  name  of  Clove  Gillyflower  water  a 
cordial  was  prepared  of  brandy,  water,  and  sugar,  in  which  the  flowers 
of  the  single  red  Clove  had  been  steeped.  This  was  in  much  repute 
in  the  eighteenth  century,  and  “Ratafia  d’QUillets”  of  the  French,  in 
which  the  petals  of  the  single  Grenadin  Carnation  are  used,  seems 
much  like  the  above.  In  “  Country  Contentments  ”  (1623)  a  curious 
method  of  pickling  the  petals  in  sugar  and  vinegar  is  described,  and 
how  the  flowers  were  used  with  Purslane  and  pickled  Cucumbers  in 
forming  flowers  laid  on  flat  dishes.  We  are  informed  that  “These 
Sallets  are  both  for  shew  and  use,  for  they  are  more  excellent  for  taste 
than  to  look  on.” 
“  Pink,”  though  now  employed  to  indicate  only  the  flower  which 
we  know  by  that  name,  at  one  time  was  applied  to  several  distinct 
plants.  It  was  also  one  of  the  names  of  the  Carnation.  An  instance 
occurs  in  a  children’s  coloured  picture  book  (printed  in  “  lively  ” 
colours)  of  the  early  years  of  the  seventeenth  century,  in  which  by 
the  name  of  “  Jagged  Pink,”  a  crimson  Carnation  of  a  fair'  size  and 
very  double,  is  pourtrayed.  This  may  have  been  the  old  “  Clove  Pink,” 
which  was  red  and  quite  distinct  from  the  plant  known  by  that  name 
to-day.  This,  and  the  Old  Man’s  Head  Pink,  were  by  some  authorities 
considered  true  Carnations. 
The  last  designation — Carnation — is  the  best  known  of  all.  Some 
little  difference  of  opinion  has  existed  as  to  the  derivation  and  meaning 
of  this  word.  Hogg,  as  an  instance,  having  discovered  that  it  meant 
from  “  Carnation  ”  a  “  flesh  coloured  ”  flower ;  and’it  was  “  coronarium 
from  its  having  been  used  for  chaplets  and  garlands  for  the  head,” 
The  first  derivation  is  unsupported  by,  any  evidence.  “  Coronaria,”  on 
the  other  hand,  is  a  name  beyond  dispute.  Dodoeens  declares  that 
some  have  surnamed  it  “altilem  coronariam,”  cultivated,  or  perhaps 
double  coronaria,  and  the  reason  why  it  was  so  surnamed  v/as  because 
of  its  employment  in  garlands  (coronis)  and  particularly  “  the  double,’’ 
which  was  used  “  almost  beyond  measure.” 
Carnation,  as  a  name,  was  at  first  by  no  means  popular,  and  perhaps 
it  is  only  of  late  years  it  has  become  truly  so.  Anyhow,  while  Spenser 
and  Lillie  name  the  Carnation  along  with  Gillyflowers— the  last  of 
which,  in  these  instances,  must  refer  to  another  plant — most  writers 
leave  the  novel  designation  severely  alone.  Gerarde  eschews  it,  though 
it  is  admitted  his  Herbal  is  largely  a  translation  of  Dodoeen’s  “  History 
of  Plants  ” ;  while  Lyte,  on  the  other  hand,  has  it  in  a  translation  of 
an  earlier  work  of  the  same  author.  Bacon  refers  to  Carnations  as 
“gillifers  of  all  kinds.”  Lawson  seems  to  have  been  quite  unacquainted 
with  the  word,  though  he  grew  nine  or  ten  varieties  of  July  flowers 
as  large  as  Damask  Roses.  Neither  Surfleet  nor  Markham  name  it, 
though  Peacham,  writing  about  the  same  time,  mentions  “Cloue 
gilliflowers  and  Carnations.”  In  1664,  Evelyn  distinguishes  between 
Carnations  and  Gilliflowers;  but  Lawrence  (1726)  says  Carnations  are 
also  called  “  Gillyflowers  or  July  flowers.”  From  about  1700  “  Carna¬ 
tion  ”  was  used  by  florists,  and  Gillyflowers  continued  for  long  the 
everyday  pretty  name  in  common  use. — R.  P.  Brotueeston. 
(To  be  continued.) 
SIMILARITY  OF  LIFE  IN  THE  VEGETABLE 
AND  ANIMAL  KINGDOMS. 
{^Concluded  from  page  105.) 
Reproduction, 
So  anxious  seems  the  beneficent  mother — Nature— to  preserve  the 
varied  forms  of  life  that,  at  first  sight,  the  power  implanted  in  her 
subjects  of  the  vegetable  kingdom  is  so  great,  and  the  desire  in  the 
other  kingdom  so  assertive,  to  “multiply  and  replenish”  as  wnuld 
warrant  the  conclusion  that  it  is  considerably  overdone.  She  has,  too, 
her  own  methods  of  balancing  matters  in  this  marvellous  fecundity  of 
life,  as  may  be  noted  by  race  living  at  the  expense  ot  race;  in  the 
multitudinous  examples  illustrating  the  interdependence  of  sjjecies 
chiefly,  but  not  wholly,  in  the  animal  kingdom  ;  and  the  highest  stage 
of  interdependence  between  the  two  great  kingdoms.  The  wondeiful 
methods  employed  as  a  substitute  for  that  missing  link,  volition,  in 
plant  life  whereby  insects  are  the  winged  messengers  of  love  in  the 
silent  kingdom  with  other  ways  and  means  to  the  end  of  fertilisation 
and  reproduction,  cannot  but  excite  our  wonder  and  admiration.  So 
the  great  plant- world  lures  by  a  thousand  charms  of  fragrance,  of 
colour,  of  nutriment,  or  some  essential  to  the  economy  of  animal  life, 
the  subjects  of  it  to  supply  the  deficiency  to  their  mutual  advantage. 
It  is  not  felt  to  be  necessary  to  enter  at  any  length  into  details 
which  are  so  easily  to  be  acquired  from  botanical  treatises.  Like  begets 
like,  as  a  general  rule,  until  man  or  other  agent  intervene.  Certain 
safeguards,  too,  protect  the  rights  of  Nature  from  being  unduly 
tampered  with.  In  the  matter  of  hybrids,  whether  the  barrier  on 
which  is  inscribed  “  Thus  far  shalt  thou  go  and  no  farther,”  wisely 
intervenes  where  confusion  might  commence,  and  the  ending  be  in 
dire  disaster.  Traversing  the  whole  range  of  life  in  both  kingdoms 
pretty  much  the  same  means  to  the  same  end  of  perpetuation  of  species 
are  frequently  in  evidence.  Dr.  Lindley  speaks  of  trees  arriving  at 
the  age  of  puberty,  and  says  respecting  it,  “  This  alteration  of  habit 
.  .  .  .  by  the  influence  of  which  the  sap  or  blood  of  the  plant  is 
to  be  partially  directed  from  its  former  courses  into  channels  in  which 
its  force  is  to  be  applied  to  the  production  of  new  individuals  rather 
