200 TYPES OF BRITISH PLANTS 
with small white or yellow flowers, such as we find on 
the Shepherd’s Purse, or on the Hedge Mustard. But 
it would be ungrateful to forget one or two which help 
to make the country beautiful, or to despise the eminently 
useful cabbage and the watercress. The gorgeous yellow 
blaze of a mustard field, as it flares amidst the sombre 
background of the Fens, must go to the credit of the 
order, as must the early Cuckoo-flower, which decks our 
meadows in spring, whilst country gardens would be very 
loath to spare the sweet-scented Wallflower (or, to stick 
to the old-fashioned name, Gilliflower), the bright Stock, 
and the Candytuft, the heads of which lead us back in 
thought to the Umbellifere. 
Between the Crucifers and the Violets are arranged 
the Mignonette and the Rock Rose, two flowers that 
deserve some notice. The Mignonette tribe includes the 
Woad, with its memories of Cesar and sky-blue-painted 
Britons, a costume which must have been far more 
picturesque than the modern top-hat and frock-coat. 
The Woad is also a historically interesting plant, for in 
the reign of Queen Elizabeth an ordinance was issued by 
the Privy Council, which had then far more power than 
it has now, forbidding it to be grown within several miles 
of London, because the Queen objected to the smell. 
Imagine Queen Victoria issuing such an order about 
cabbages! The Rock Rose is, to my mind, one of our 
most perfect wild flowers, and you may find it on 
almost any dry, chalky soil, a rather shrubby and hairy 
little plant, with large, bright yellow flowers in a cluster 
at the top, of the pure yellow which we found in the 
Rosacez, and reminding us much of that group, though 
easily distinguished by its narrow, strap-shaped leaves 
and its numerous stamens, as well as by the fact that 
there are usually several flowers on the stalk. 
