CARDUUS, see [Holy Thistle].
CARNATIONS.
| (1) | Perdita. | The fairest flowers o' the season Are our Carnations and streak'd Gillyvors, Which some call Nature's bastards. |
| Winter's Tale, act iv, sc. 4 (81). | ||
| (2) | Polyxenes. | Then make your garden rich in Gillyvors, And do not call them bastards. |
| Ibid. (98). | ||
There are two other places in which Carnation is mentioned, but they refer to carnation colour—i.e., to pure flesh colour.
| (3) | Quickly. | 'A could never abide Carnation; 'twas a colourhe never liked. |
| Henry V, act ii, sc. 3 (35). | ||
| (4) | Costard. | Pray you, sir, how much Carnation riband may aman buy for a remuneration? |
| Love's Labour's Lost, act iii, sc. 1 (146). | ||
Dr. Johnson and others have supposed that the flower is so named from the colour, but that this is a mistake is made very clear by Dr. Prior. He quotes Spenser's "Shepherd's Calendar"—
"Bring Coronations and Sops-in-Wine
Worn of Paramours."
and so it is spelled in Lyte's "Herbal," 1578, coronations or cornations. This takes us at once to the origin of the name. The plant was one of those used in garlands (coronæ), and was probably one of the most favourite plants used for that purpose, for which it was well suited by its shape and beauty. Pliny gives a long list of garland flowers (Coronamentorum genera) used by the Romans and Athenians, and Nicander gives similar lists of Greek garland plants (στεφανωματικὰ ἄνθη), in which the Carnation holds so high a place that it was called by the name it still has—Dianthus, or Flower of Jove.
