A WINTER-PIECE AMONG THE PENTLANDS. A flock of fieldfares from the leafless trees Flew chattering mournfully, while here and there A single redwing flung upon the breeze A sigh that seem’d the utterance of despair. But on the burn, scarce half a mile below, The bluff white-breasted ouzel from a rock Pour’d his bold song—a huddling overflow Of mirth, those faint-heart winter-fowl to mock. —Henry Johnstone. THE CARNATION. Most of the names by which we are accustomed to designate familiar forms of the vegetable kingdom have descended to us from remote times and from ancient associations. The old terms are for the most part founded either on the medicinal values of the plants or on some mythological fancy that accounted for their creation or form. The Carnation derived its generic name from the latter source. The term Dianthus is derived from two Greek words, signifying flower of Jupiter, while the specific name, caryophyllus, is obtained from words meaning nut and leaf, originally applied to the clove tree, but later given to the Carnation, because of its spicy fragrance. Again, the word Carnation is from the Latin, meaning flesh, and was deemed appropriate because of the pink and white color of the petals. The name Dianthus, or flower of Jupiter, originates in a Greek myth, that had to do with the establishment of Olympus. Jupiter had escaped the unpleasant fate that befell his brothers, namely, of being swallowed by their unnatural parent, Saturn. Jupiter married Metis (Prudence), who straightway demonstrated the fitness of her name by bestowing on Saturn a draught which caused him to disgorge his domestic bill of fare, and the sons, banding together, imprisoned their father and his brother Titans and divided their empire among themselves. Jupiter inherited the heavens and became king of gods and men. When the Thunderer came into possession of his kingdom Vulcan, the celestial artist, crowned him with a chaplet of beautiful flowers, whose white petals Iris had marked with the colors of the rainbow, their edges being bright with the plumage of the peacock, which was the favorite bird of Juno, as was Iris, her chosen attendant, after she espoused Jupiter and became queen of the gods. Hence the Dianthus became the flower of Jupiter. The Carnation has been under cultivation for more than two thousand years. Theophrastus, who gave the plant its technical name, states that “the Greeks cultivated roses, gillie flowers, violets, narcissi and iris,” gillie flower being the old English name for the Carnation, having been bestowed upon it for the reason that it bloomed in July. It was also called the Coronarium because it was the coronation flower of a queen of Italy during whose reign in the sixteenth century the plants were introduced into England.