SWEET-WILLIAM, OR BEARDED PINK. Dianthus Barbatus.

Sweet-William small has form and aspect bright,
Like that sweet flower that yields great Jove delight.

COWLEY.

THE Sweet-William is a species of Pink indigenous to Germany, from whence it has been scattered over all parts of Europe; for what it wants in fragrance it supplies by masses of flowers and splendour of colours, so as to ensure it a welcome receptiou in all classes of gardens. Its large and compact umbel of variegated flowers may be considered as Flora's colour-palette, on which she has frolicked, varying her favourite dyes to display all her gayest tints of reds and purples, mingled with pure white and jetty black, disposed in stars, as thickly set, and as bright as the eyes of Argus; so that one stem supports a large and brilliant bouquet: on which account the Dutch gardeners formerly gave it the name of Keykens, which is their familiar term for a nosegay or large bunch of flowers. The French also distinguish it by the name of illet bouquet, Nosegay of Pinks, and Bouquet parfait, perfect Nosegay; it is also called Eillet de Poëte, Poet's Pink.

The Sweet-William seems to have escaped the

attention of the ancients, since we do not find it described by any of their writers. D. Rembertus Dodoneus, who was physician to the emperor Charles the Fifth, is the first author who seems to have noticed this plant; he tells us, in the second part of his History of Plants, chap. 7, that it grows in sunny situations on rough hilly places in Germany. This author calls it Amerius flos and Colmenier; he tells us also that this plant had been found growing wild, but with very small flowers, in some parts of Flanders. We met with it also in the wild state on the hills in Normandy, some distance west of Dieppe, but the flowers were scarce larger than those of the London Pride, Saxifraga umbrosa, but possessing all the true character and fine pencilling of colour of the Sweet-William. The plants were about three inches in height, and growing in an uncultivated spot, at such a distance from any dwelling or garden, as to justify the opinion of its being a native of that part of France, rather than a degenerated plant escaped from the garden.

Dr. Turner has not noticed the Sweet-William in his work of 1568; but in twenty-nine years after, it is mentioned by Gerard, as a common flower in the gardens of that age, and where we may presume it had long held a situation, since, amongst other names, it was called "London

Tuftes." Gerard calls them Sweet-Williams, but on what account they were so named we are left to surmise, unless we could persuade ourselves that they were so called after the greatest man of that age, William Shakspeare. Gerard notices many varieties, both with double and single flowers; he says, "We have in our London gardens a kinde hereof, bearing most fine and pleasant white flowers, spotted very confusedly with reddish spots, which setteth foorth the beautie thereof, and hath beene taken of some to be the plant called of the later writers Superba Austriaca, or the pride of Austrich." This author quaintly observes, "These plants are kept and maintained in gardens, more for to please the eie, than either the nose or belly."

In the floral vocabulary, the Sweet-William is made the hieroglyphic of finesse.

In the inimitable imitation of the bard of Marmion, the flames of Drury are represented as giving to every object the hue of this flower:

To distant fields the blaze was borne ;
And Daisy white and hoary Thorn
In borrow'd lustre seem'd to sham
The Rose or Red Sweet Wil-li-am.

Rejected Addresses.

This species of Dianthus has been named Barbatus, from the hairy or pointed scales of the calyx. The easy culture of this plant, and its hardy

nature, which reconciles itself to almost every soil and situation, has rendered it common to every cottage-garden, without lessening its charms: for its varieties are so infinite, that we scarcely ever met with the same in any two gardens; and when large clumps of them are in full flower, their gaiety in mass is such as not to be eclipsed by the proudest plant of the parterre—whilst their individual beauty exhibits such lovely dyes, and finished pencilling, as to defy imitation: the colours of the corollas are also frequently found to vary considerably on the same branch.

The seeds of these plants should be saved from the finest varieties, both dark and light-coloured; and these should be sown annually, for although they are perennial plants, they are subject to straggle and decay. The seed should be sown about the beginning of April, on a border of light earth, and in June they will be fit to transplant out, which should be done in clumps as we have directed for Pinks, excepting that they may form larger clumps, and those may be placed more in the back ground than Pinks, and to fill vacant spaces amongst shrubs, that require a gay contrast, as their brilliancy of colour gives a great cheerfulness to such scenes.

The choice varieties of this plant may be increased and preserved by slips, layers, or cuttings,

which should be planted about Michaelmas, in a soil neither too light nor too heavy or stiff: dunged ground should also be avoided for this plant, as it occasions it to rot.

The Sweet-William is too formal a flower to grace the alabaster or china vase, and its want of perfume also unfits it for the saloon; yet it is a favourite in country bough-pots, from the long duration of its flowers, which continue to give fresh blossoms in the water, and which being generally of a paler colour than those which had expanded in the open air, the umbel becomes a mottled mass of variegated petals.

THE CHINA, OR INDIAN PINK. Dianthus Chinensis.

With hues on hues expression cannot paint,

The breath of nature and her endless bloom.

THOMSON.

THIS gaily-painted flower, which we have borrowed from the fertile soil of China to decorate the gardens of Europe, seems to form a link between the Sweet-William and the fragrant Pink, partaking in some measure, of the character of each: in richness of colour it excels the former flower, and its