| (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 colour he never liked. |
| Henry V, act ii, sc. 3 (35). |
|
| (4) | Costard. | Pray you, sir, how much Carnation riband may a man 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 (stefa??at??? ????), in which the Carnation holds so high a place that it was called by the name it still has—Dianthus, or Flower of Jove.
Its second specific name, Caryophyllus—i.e., Nut-leaved—seems at first very inappropriate for a grassy leaved plant, but the name was first given to the Indian Clove-tree, and from it transferred to the Carnation, on account of its fine clove-like scent. Its popularity as an English plant is shown by its many names—Pink, Carnation, Gilliflower[48:1] (an easily-traced and well-ascertained corruption from Caryophyllus), Clove, Picotee,[48:2] and Sops-in-Wine, from the flowers being used to flavour wine and beer.[48:3] There is an historical interest also in the flowers. All our Carnations, Picotees, and Cloves come originally from the single Dianthus caryophyllus; this is not a true British plant, but it holds a place in the English flora, being naturalized on Rochester and other castles. It is abundant in Normandy, and I found it (in 1874) covering the old castle of Falaise in which William the Conqueror was born. Since that I have found that it grows on the old castles of Dover, Deal, and Cardiff, all of them of Norman construction, as was Rochester, which was built by Gundulf, the special friend of William. Its occurrence on these several Norman castles make it very possible that it was introduced by the Norman builders, perhaps as a pleasant memory of their Norman homes, though it may have been accidentally introduced with the Normandy (Caen) stone, of which parts of the castles are built. How soon it became a florist's flower we do not know, but it must have been early, as in Shakespeare's time the sorts of Cloves, Carnations, and Pinks were so many that Gerard says: "A great and large volume would not suffice to write of every one at large in particular, considering how infinite they are, and how every yeare, every clymate and countrey, bringeth forth new sorts, and such as have not heretofore bin written of;" and so we may certainly say now—the description of the many kinds of Carnations and Picotees, with directions for their culture, would fill a volume.
FOOTNOTES:
