IT is impossible to determine with exactitude which amongst our garden flowers is the oldest in the history of floriculture. But this is certain, that the carnation is one of the oldest; and as an English flower it is possibly older than the tulip, which, it must be confessed, will run a close race with it when the question is considered from a florist's point of view. As to the origin of the flower, it is beyond doubt the offspring of a wilding of the south of Europe; and it is probable Pliny is correct in saying--as in his twenty-fifth book he does--that it was discovered in Spain in the days of Augustus Caesar. The "cantabrica," which we take to be the carnation, was, he says, employed by the Spaniards to give a spicy flavour to their beverages, thus antedating the "soppes in wine" to which our old English writers occasionally refer. Thus, in the reign of Edward the Third, Chaucer, in describing a rural scene, wrote in his quaint language--

"Ther springen herbes, greet and smale,

The licorys and the cetewale,

And many a clow gilofre;

And notemuge to put in ale,

Whethir it be moist or stale,

Or for to lay in cofre"

The "cetewale" in this verse is the valerian, and the "clow gilofre" is the clove carnation, which was used in the preparation of a spicy cup, and also to lay up with garments in a coffer or clothes-press. By "gilofre," "gilloflower," or "gilliflower" many very different flowers were formerly understood, but always with a qualifying prefix, as the "stock-gilloflower," the "wall-gilloflower," &c.; but the gilloflower of the old writers was beyond all doubt the carnation. Strange to say, this is a corruption of the Latin caryophyllum, a clove, the fragrance of the flower being like that of the clove of commerce; and in days when spices were costly, a carnation was a cheap substitute for the real thing. The more familiar name "carnation" refers to its colour, and this in old times was corrupted to "coronation," and was thence associated with the custom of wearing it by lovers as a crown or chaplet, to denote that their hearts and hands were engaged.

The carnation, as a garden flower, must have been known in this country from very ancient times; and it is probably true that the yellow varieties were introduced, as Gerarde describes, by Master Lete about the year 1580.

Stow says they came from the Low Countries in 1567. We are, therefore, to suppose that previously to the last-named date none but self-coloured cloves were known; and yet Perdita, in the "Winter's Tale," which was written in 1601, speaks of streaked gilivors," not as things hardly known, but as old inhabitants of the garden; for Shakespeare did not weaken his sentiment by appealing to facts with which his auditors were unfamiliar. One thing is certain, however, that in the year 1629 John Parkinson had a large collection, and they comprised all the classes now cultivated, with the single exception of the picotee.

In the cultivation of the exhibition carnations, a loamy soil, enriched with thoroughly rotted manure and vegetable mould, is of the first importance; and all possible precautions should be taken to exclude or to trap wire-worms, which are their greatest enemies. The plants are propagated from seeds, layers, and pipings. The beginner will find it easier to commence by raising a stock from seed, the proper time to sow which is the month of May.

But layering is requisite for the perpetuation of trained varieties, and the art may be fully acquired with the practice of one season. The steps and stages of the process are as follow:--A suitable shoot is first brought down to the ground, and fixed by means of a peg cut from a hazel twig or the common bracken. The operator having thus far obtained command of it, puts the peg aside, and then removes the lowest leaves from the shoot, so as to leave the three topmost joints with their leaves intact. He now cuts the shoot half through, just below the third joint, and then turns the knife aside to carry it upwards along the middle of the shoot to about half an inch from (that is to say, beyond) the joint. The result will be the formation of what is called a tongue, which will include a portion of the joint. The greater part of this tongue is removed; but it is important that the joint portion of it should be left unhurt, as from that joint the roots will proceed. The shoot thus operated upon is again bent down and fixed firmly with the peg, and the divided joint is covered with some fine rich soil, and is watered occasionally, the result being that in about six weeks there will be enough roots formed to allow of the removal of the layer as a young plant. From the middle of July to the middle of August is the proper time for this business. Practice simplifies the work so much that the preliminary bending down becomes unnecessary.