CULPEPER'S COMPLETE HERBAL

CARNATION

Name. Called also clove July-flower.

Description. This beautiful plant has numerous stems and those which support the flowers are round, upright firm, but jointed and divided into many branches, and grow two or three feet high. the leaves are very numerous, very long and narrow, sharp pointed, smooth on the edges, and surface of a pale green. Those which rise from the lower stems are placed in pairs, and are broader and shorter than others. The flowers stand singly at the extremities of the branches and their divisions. They are large, of a fine deep purple colour, and a most delightful fragrant smell, resembling that of the clove spice. The seeds are very numerous; they are compressed, and of a roundish figure.

Place. For its beauty it is admitted into the gardens of the curious.

Time. It flowers in July.

Government and virtues. This plant belongs to Venus in Aries. The beauties of this plant in its wild state were too conspicuous to escape the notice of the florists, who, by their unwearied attention to its culture, have raised from it all that vast and beautiful variety of carnations which they justly esteemed the pride of their gardens. The flowers are the part to be made use of in physic. A strong decoction of them is an excellent medicine in malignant fevers; it powerfully promotes perspiration and the urinary discharge, without the least irritation, and at the same time raises the spirits, and quenches thirst.

They are cordial, and of considerable efficacy in dejection of spirits, faintings, head-achs, and other nervous complaints. There is a syrup of them kept in the shops, but it is too much loaded with sugar to be of any great use. Perhaps the best preparation of them is a strong tincture in brandy.