Flora's Lexicon/China or Indian Pink

4412914Flora's Lexicon — China or Indian PinkCatharine Harbeson Waterman

AHINA, or INDIAN PINK. Dianthus. Class 10, Decandria. Order: Digynia. This gaily painted flower we have taken from the fertile soil of the east to decorate our parterres. Its colours are richer than those of the Sweet William, and it continues in flower for a longer period; but its flowers being placed singly on branching stems, like those of the common pink, they never present that fine mass of colour which the large umbel of the Sweet William exhibits, and they are entirely deficient in that fragrance for which the pink is so much admired.

AVERSION.

They say all breathing nature has an instinct
Of that which would destroy it. I of thee
Feel that abhorrence! If a glistering serpent
Hiss’d in my path, I could not shudder more,
Nor would I kill it sooner—so begone!
I’ll strike thee dead else!

Willis.


Ask not which passion in my soul was higher,
My last aversion, or my first desire;
Nor this the greater was, nor that the less;
Both were alike, for both were in excess.

Dryden.


Sooner the olive shall provoke
To am’rous clasps this sturdy oak,
And doves in league with eagles be,
Ere I will glance a smile on thee.
Sooner yon duskish mulberry
In her old white shall clothed be,
And lizards with fierce asps combine,
Ere I will twist my soul with thine.

Hall.