SWEET WILLIAMS
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] am constrained to write this by the determination expressed by a lady to grow no more of these flowers in her garden. On my inquiring the reason for this sudden aversion, she replied she had learned from the Spectator that the plant was named after the Butcher of Culloden." The statement. was made in your issue of May 5th, as an answer in a com- petition in general knowledge, but in this case it proves ignorance, for the flower has been cultivated in English gardens under this name for over three hundred and fifty years. From London's Encyclopaedia of Gardening :-
"Dianthus barbatus, Sweet William, native of Germany intro- duced in 1573. An old inhabitant of the flower garden, and was much esteemed in Gerard's time for its beauty, to deck the bossoms of the beautiful, and garlands, and crowns for pleasure."
From the Oxford English Dictionary :-
" 1573 Tuaser, Hush.: ' Flerbes, branches and flowers for windowos and pots, Sweet Williams . .
1578 Lyte, Dodoens : The third (sort of gillofer) which we call in Englishe Sweet Williams.'
1616 Browne, Brit. Past. : They did entwine the white, the blue, the flesh-like Columbine with Pinekes, Sweet Williams . . "
These quotations should, I think, dispose of the idea that this honest old flower owes anything to William, Duke of Cumberland, of odious memory.—I am, Sir, &c., 58 Parkfleld Street, Manchester. 111.kxny A. GIBSON.
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