The same poet alludes to them under their more modern appellations:—
"The brave carnation, then, of sweet and sovereign power
(So of his colour called, although a July flower),
With the other of his kind, the speckled and the pale;—
Then the odoriferous pink, that sends forth such a gale
Of sweetness, yet in scents as various as in sorts."
The scientific name of this beautiful family of plants, whose rich dyes are not less conspicuous than their Sabæan odours, is Dianthus, or "Flower of God." They form a genus of the natural order Carophyllaceæ; the calyx is tubular, and five-toothed; there are five petals, which at the throat of the corolla are lightened (as it were) into a linear "claw." The stamens are double the number of the petals; the capsule is of a cylindrical outline, and one-celled.
Fig. 79.—"When I haunted the green lanes of a Devonshire village."