Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XIII.djvu/547

 PINK 531 growing wild in the Atlantic states are intro- duced annual weeds (D. Armeria and D. pro- lifer) and of very insignificant appearance. One of the most popular of the garden spe- cies of dianthus, D. ~barbatus, is rarely called pink, being better known by the name of sweet William, but is sometimes called bunch pink ; it is the poet's pink of the French ; it differs from most other species in forming a flat-topped cluster, crowded with variously colored small flowers, having sharply toothed petals; this is a native of Europe, and until within a few years has not held a very high rank, but great improvement has been made in the flowers ; a strain called the auricula-flowered is very fine, from the distinct markings of the petals, and some of the double sorts are rich and remain in flower longer than the single. Though a perennial, this is usually treated as a biennial ; the seed being sown in spring, the plants flow- er in the spring following, and as the first crop of bloom is finer than the later ones, it is bet- ter to throw out the plants after they have flowered, and provide for a succession by annual sowings. The common pink of coun- try gardens, often seen in large tufts, is D. plumarius, a native of some parts of Europe and naturalized in many others ; it is known as garden pink, plumed and pheasant's-eye pink, bunch, cushion, and grass pink, and by oth- er botanical and com- mon names ; it is a low, hardy perennial, with small and very Florist's Pink. glaucous leaves, its flow- er stems produced early in summer, bearing one to three flowers, which in the single variety are of a pale pink color ; their petals are fringed, and it has a strong and very pleasant fragrance; the improved varieties are double pink or double white, and some are marked with a dark eye, and they altogether present considerable variation ; this is sometimes planted as an edging to beds, but its foliage is so dull that it produces an unpleasant effect if used in large quantities. Some regard this species as the parent of the finer kinds of florists' pinks, but it is very probable that other kinds were concerned in their production, though, as with many flo- rists' flowers long in cultivation, it is difficult to trace them to their original species. The clove pink (D. caryophyllus), so called from the resemblance of its fragrance to that of the well known spice, is found wild in the south of Europe, and is no doubt the original of the finer kinds of pinks ; it is perennial, and with its varieties scarcely hardy in our northern states ; its stems become almost woody at the base; it has long, linear, and very glaucous leaves, and bears its flowers solitary at the ends of the branches; the scales at the base Picotee Pink. Carnation Pink. of the calyx are very short and broad, and the petals merely toothed; in the wild state the flowers are white and purple. This has long been a favorite flower, and cultivation has produced innumerable varieties ; in a florist's classification the varieties are divided into pi- cotees, pinks, and carnations, each including white, yellow, and every shade of red, up to dark crimson and scarlet, the distinctions being founded upon the arrangement of the colors. In the picotee the color making the variegation is only on the edge of the petals, in a broad or narrow band, and if any ramifies toward the centre of the flower it must be connected with that on the edge. Pinks, or florists' pinks, as they are often styled, have the color between the edge and the base of the petal, and in the whole flower it is in concentric circles, tech- nically called the lacing of the flower. In car- nations the color is in longitudinal splashes or stripes from the bas^e of the petal to its edge ; among carnations flow- ers showing two colors are called flakes, those in which there are three bizarres, and when there is but one color the variety is called self-colored. A class known as mule pinks, supposed to be a hybrid between the carnation and sweet William, contains some beautiful varieties which are China Pink (Dianthus Chinensis).