election of plants for the bed of sweet odours
it is best, as in the case of choosing annuals, to adhere to a few tried
and true worthies.

But at your rhapsody on the bed of carnations, I am also tempted to
launch forth in praise of all pinks in general and the annual flowering
garden carnation, early Marguerite, and picotee varieties in particular,
especially when I think what results might be had from the same bits of
ground that are often left to be overrun with straggling and unworthy
annuals. For to have pinks to cut for the house, pinks for colour masses
out-of-doors, and pinks to give away, is but a matter of understanding,
a little patience, and the possession of a cold pit (which is but a
deeper sort of frame like that used for a hotbed and sunken in the
ground) against a sunny wall, for the safe wintering of a few of the
tenderer species.

In touching upon this numerous family, second only to the rose in
importance, the embarrassment is, where to begin. Is a carnation a pink,
or a pink a carnation? I have often been asked. You may settle that as
you please, since the family name of all, even the bearded
Sweet-William, is _Dianthus_, the decisive title of Linnaeus, a word from
the Greek meaning "flower of Jove," while the highly scented species
and varieties of the more or less pungent clove breath remain under the
old subtitle--_Caryophyllus_.

To go minutely into the differences and distinctions of the race would
require a book all to itself, for in 1597, more than three hundred years
ago, Gerarde wrote: "There are, under the name of _Caryophyllus_,
comprehended diuers and sundrie sorts of plants, of such variable
colours and also severall shapes that a great and large volume would not
suffice to write of euery one in particular." And when we realize that
the pink was probably the first flower upon which, early in the
eighteenth century, experiments in hybridization were tried, the
intricacy will be fully understood.

For the Garden, You, and I, three superficial groups only are necessary:
the truly hardy perennial pinks, that when once established remain for
years; the half-hardy perennials that flower the second year after
planting, and require protection; and the biennials that will flower the
first year and may be treated as annuals.

The Margaret carnations, though biennials, are best treated as annuals,
for they may be had in flower in three to four months after the sowing
of the seed, and the En