138 



FLOWERS OK ROCKS, WALLS, ETC. 



The flowers are large and conspicuous, sweet-scented and attractive 

 to insects, and the stigma is provided with spreading lobes to assist 

 insects to alight upon it and cause cross-pollinalion. There are 2 

 honey-glands at the base of the 2 stamens. 



The seeds are dispersed by the wind or the plant's own mechanism. 

 The seeds are flattened, and this assists in their dispersal by the wind 

 when the pod has opened or dehisced lengthwise. 



The Wallflower is largely a rock [ilant or saxicolous, and grows on 



a variety of rocks — gran- 

 ite, sandstone, and oolite. 

 It is also a sand plant, 

 fa\-ouring a sand soil de- 

 ri\-ed from sandy forma- 

 tions. 



It is infested by a 

 fungus, Pcroiiospora para- 

 sitica. The beetle Bari- 

 diits laticollis, and the 

 Lepidoptera Large Yellow 

 Underwing { TriphcDia 

 pro/nida), Angle Shades 

 ( P/i looophora lucticu losa ) , 

 P/utella cnicifcranitii, P. 

 porrcitclla, visit it. 



The name C/iciri, or 

 Kiir in Arabic, was 

 adopted by Linnaeus, who 

 added autlios, Greek for 

 flower. Chciros means a 

 man's hand, and it was 

 called hand-flower. Gerarde (1597) called it Well Gilloflower. 



The English names are Banwort, Bee Flower, Bleeding Heart, 

 Blood Wall, Bloody Warrior, Chevisaunce, Churl, Geraflour, Gilli- 

 flower, Heartsease, Jacks, Jeroffleris, Jilliver, July Flower, Keyry, 

 Sweet William. It was called Winter Flower and luly Flower be- 

 cause it flowers in winter and is more or less dead in summer. In 

 Palestine it was called "Blood-drops of Christ". A legend is told of 

 a maiden held captive on the Tweed banks, having plighted her troth 

 with a member of a hostile clan. The ri\al chiefs fought and shed 

 blood between each other. The lover at last gained admission as 

 a troubadour and planned escape, he agreeing to wait for her: 



Plioto I, H. Cr.lbtree 



Wallflower (Clieimntlnis Cheiri, L.) 



