IT is an easy matter to write Dianthus plumarius, and then regard the name as a sign that we have traced the pink to its source. But here, as elsewhere, there is room for difference of opinion, because between the wild flower and the flower of the garden there is a great gulf fixed. It is convenient to regard D. caryophyllus as the origin of the carnation, and the species named above as the origin of the pink, but other species come near to both flowers, and in their garden forms the two sweet old favourites are very distinct. All the allied forms may be termed mural plants, for the Cheddar pink loves limestone rocks, the wild clove is the "castle pink" of poetry, the pheasant's-eye pink (D. plumarius) has a special love for the walls of Ludlow Castle, and the Deptford pink (D. armeria) haunts dry chalky banks about Cobham, Higham, and Sandwich, and joins with all the rest in hinting to the lover of pinks that to grow such flowers well a dry calcareous soil is much to be desired.

We call pinks "old-fashioned" flowers, and perhaps we should find them more often mentioned in old than in modern books. Cowper, in his tender lines on his mother's picture, includes the pink amongst the favourites of his childhood:--

"Could time, his flight reversed, restore the hours,

When, playing with thy vesture's tissued flowers,

The violet, the pink, and jessamine,

I pricked them into paper with a pin."

In the "Paradisus" of John Parkinson we have evidence of the importance of these flowers in old English gardens, and it may interest readers of the dry-as-dust school to look upon a pink or carnation in the first place as a true gilly-flower, and next as the true clove that served for the payment of a reserve, or, at all events, as the emblem of acknowledgement in the constitution of a tenure. The authority for this is Turner's paper on the horticulture of the Middle Ages, and it dates from a time when the clove of commerce and the peppercorn were equally unknown.

Border pinks differ from show pinks only in flowering more freely, and with less perfection of form and colour, many of them being destitute of the "lacing" that is so much valued as a characteristic of the flowers that are grown for exhibition. The show pinks are richly and regularly marked with broad bands of colour on each petal, but border pinks are irregularly marked, or are self-coloured: that is, of one colour only. The true pinks, whether show or border flowers, are generally esteemed for their spicy fragrance. But there is a class also much valued that are often quite wanting in fragrance: these are known as "mule" pinks, being hybrids of Dianthus plumarius with other species, such as, perhaps, D. casius, D. sinensis, and D. superbus. The mule pinks are not only useful as border plants, but are often grown in pots for forcing, being easily managed to supply flowers throughout the winter, and more especially at the dawn of spring, when flowers are much in demand, and are often very scarce.

There is no flower in the garden on which the amateur may with greater advantage bestow attention than on the pink. The shortest and surest way of securing a fine lot is to sow a pinch of good seed in the month of April, and raise the young stock in a frame. Sow in pots filled with sandy loam, and keep these moderately moist, and closely shut up and shaded in the frame until the young plants appear, when the tactics must be changed in favour of air and light. All seeds germinate more regularly and vigorously if screened from the light, but the growth that young plants make in a subdued light is likely to be weak and unhealthy. Give them as much air as the weather will allow, with water enough, but no excess, for the pink is a dry plant, and sooner suffers from damp than cold. When they are large enough to handle, plant them out on a border of fine soil in a sunny position, at about three inches apart. In the event of having to prepare a border for them, make it up of sifted turfy loam and sharp sand in about equal proportions. When the pinks begin to crowd one another, take them up, and plant them where they are to remain for flowering.

When pinks are grown in any quantity, a good bed should be prepared for them, rich and deep, but in a sunny, well-drained situation. The month of September is the best time for a general planting of pinks, more especially when the plants are purchased and named varieties are preferred.