CtAss XV. ORDKiiu.J CHEIRANTUUS. ' 899 



GENUS XVIII. CHEIRAN'THUS.— Linn. Wallflower. 



Nat. Ord. Crxjcif'eRjE. Juss. 



Gen. Char. Siliqua linear, compressed, or quadrangular, from each 

 valve having a prominent dorsal rib. Stigma of two recurved 

 lobes. Calyx erect, with the opposite pieces swollen at the base. 

 Seeds ovsiie^ compressed. Cotyledons accumbent. — (c Fig. 1, p. 

 871.) — Named from the Arabic word Kheyry, but originally 

 applied to another genera of sweet-scented flowers. 



1. C. Chei'ri. Linn. (Fig. 1038.) Common Wallfloiver. Leaves 

 entire, lanceolate, acute, hoary, with close pressed hairs; stem shrubby, 

 with angular branches; siliqua linear, compressed ; lobes of the stigma 

 spreading. 



Hooker, British Flora, ed. 4. vol. i. p 255. — Lindley, Synopsis, p. 

 22. — C/rw^icM^05us.— English Botany, t. 1934. — English Flora, vol. 

 iii. p. 203. 



Root fibrous. Stem woody at the base, much branched, angular, 

 leafy, hoary, with stout close pressed silvery hairs. Leaves lanceolate, 

 acute, tapering into a footstalk, entire, hoary, with close pressed silvery 

 hairs, especially on the under side. Inflorescence a terminal many 

 flowered sub-corymbose raceme. Calyx of four oblong hoary pieces, 

 mostly with a narrow membranous margin, the two opposite ones 

 swollen at the base in a saccate manner. Pedicles angular, as long or 

 longer than the calyx. Petals four, ovate, or obovaie, spreading, a 

 pale or orange yellow, and often more or less stained with blood red or 

 brown, the claw narrow, slender, white, as long as the calyx. Stamens 

 as long as the calyx, the filaments simple, awl-shaped, the anthers 

 oblong, yellow, two celled. Stigma spreading, or recurved, of two 

 ovate obtuse lobes, downy. Fruit a linear siliqua, about two inches 

 long, clothed with short close pressed hairs, the valves with a stout 

 dorsal rib at the base. Seeds numerous in each cell, compressed, with 

 a narrow membranous margin. 



Habitat. — Clifi"s, old walls, and ruins ; frequent. 



Perennial ; flowering in April and May. 



The delightful fragrance of the Wallflower has ever obtained it 

 a place in the esteem of most lovers of plants ; its easy cultivation, 

 hardy habit, and fullness in blooming, even in the poorest soil, cause 

 it to be an inhabitant of every class of gardens. Its natural place of 

 growth upon old walls, the battlements and towers of ancient castles, 

 ruined abbeys, and mouldering turrets, has associated it sentimentally 

 with the stern hand of time mouldering to pristine earth even the 

 most durable materials of man's erection ; but this little flower 

 still flourishes as it did when they were in their glory, and seems 



