D I A N T H U S Caryophyllus
Clove Pink, or Carnation.
D E C A N D R I A Digynia.
Gen. Char. Cal. cylindrical, of one leaf, with about
4 fcales at the bafe. Petals 5 , furniflied with claws;
Capf. cylindrical, one-celled.
S p e c . C h a r . Flowers folitary. Scales of the calyx
almoft rhomboid, and very (hort. Petals notched,
beardlefs.
S y n . Dianthus Caryophyllus. Linn. Sp. P I. 587.
Hudf. F I. An. 184. With. Bot. Arr. 441. Smith
in Linn. ‘TranJ. v . 2. 299.
Caryophyllus fimplex flore minore pallido rubente*
R a ii Syn. 336.
G a t h e r e d on the walls of Rochefter caftle in June
laft. It is plentiful on walls in that neighbourhood, and fome-
times occurs about thofe of other old towns. Ray and Hud-
fon take it for an outcaft of gardens. Indeed it varies in fize
and colour, like all plants fo circumftanced. Ours is furely the
plant of Ray, and, we think, ought to be efteemed the real
original fpecies, rather than a variety as marked by Mr. Hud-
fon. It agrees precifely with the fpecimens of Linnaeus.
The root is perennial, and runs deep into the mortar, producing
feveral tufts of channelled glaucous leaves, finely denticulated
a little above the bafe, but in the upper part perfedfly
entire and fmooth at the margin. The item is panicled,
bearing many folitary (not fafciculated) flowers, of a light red
or flelh-colour; their petals unequally notched, fmooth at the
orifice ; calyx ftriated, with 4 fcales not a third of its length,
the 2 outermoft rhomboid, 2 innermoft wedge-fhaped, even
broader than they are long, with "a fmall point, all of them
ribbed. The ftamina are fometimes very fhort, and perhaps
in that cafe abortive, as in Arenaria dianthoides, Smith lc. 1. 10.
The ftyles are commonly long, recurved, and downy on the
upper fide.
What Mr. Doody meant by a “ hairy fpecies, frequent in
Kent, and found likewife in other places,” di{tin£t from the
above, we are at a lofs to determine.