20 FLORA HISTORICA. 



Clove Gillyflower, kc. Our great lexicographer 

 concludes that the word is corrupted from Jiihj 

 Flower, because Lord Bacon says, " in July come 

 Gillyflowers of all varieties ;" and Mortimer is also 

 quoted, who writes, '^ Gillyflowers, or rather July 

 Flowers, is called from the month they blow in ;" 

 or, says Johnson, " from Giroflee, of the French.'* 

 It is evidently not derived from /ii?y, since Chaucer, 

 who frequently uses French words, spells it Gilofre. 

 The learned Dr. Turner, in his History of Plants 

 of 1568, calls it Gelouer, to which he adds the 

 word Stock, as we would say, Gelouers that grow 

 on a stem or stock, to distinguish them from the 

 Clove Gelouers and the AVall Gelouers. Gerard, 

 ■who succeeded Turner, and after him Parkinson, 

 call it Gilloflower ; and thus it travelled from its 

 original orthography, until it was called July Flower 

 by those who knew not whence it was derived. 

 The name of Gillyflower is now but little used, and 

 the appellation of these pretty flowers at present 

 rests upon the Stock. 



Few flowering plants have been so much and 

 so rapidly improved by cultivation as the Stock, 

 that has within these last two centuries had its 

 nature so completely changed by the art of the 

 florist, that what was, in the time of Queen Eliza- 

 beth, but one degree removed from a small moun- 

 tain or sea- side flower, may now be compared to a 



