68 CRUCIFERiE 



"The white and purple gillyflowers, that stay 

 In blossom — lingering summer half away ;" 



and is there treated as an annual or biennial ; and cultivated in the flower 

 borders of both rich and poor. 



Often, as the scent comes to us from some rich Double-Stock, we are 

 reminded of the regard which Baron Cuvier had for this plant. It had been 

 the favourite flower of his mother ; and the great naturalist never forgot that 

 that mother first directed his thoughts to the observation of nature. Her 

 loved flower was prized by him to his latest day of life, and so long as it was 

 in season his table was never without its fragrance. 



' ' A flower is not a flower alone, 

 A thousand thoughts invest it." 



The French call the Stock, Le GiroflSe ; our old writers term it Stock 

 Gillyflower. In all old books on gardens we find how much it was prized ; 

 and it is not possible to read the literature of past centuries without dis- 

 covering how garden-flowers were valued then, though comparatively few 

 but simplers noticed the wild flowers. In an old work called "Delightes for 

 Ladies to adorne their Persons and Closets and Distillations, with Beauties, 

 Banquets, Perfumes, and Waters," we see how ladies of the olden time amused 

 themselves with roses, pansies, and Stock Gillyflowers ; and how, instead of 

 making the modern compound of pot-pourri, they occupied themselves in 

 " preserving single flowers without wrinkling." The author, Sir Hugh Plat, 

 says, " I find the red-rose leafe best to be kept in this manner ; also take 

 away the stalks of pansies, stocke-gillyfloures, or other single floures ; pricke 

 them one by one in sande, pressing down their leaves smooth with more 

 sande laid evenly upon them ; and then you may have rose-leaves and other 

 floures to laie about your basons, windows, etc., all the winter long." The 

 mode prescribed for preparing these leaves was to wash some " Callis sand," 

 and place it in a shallow square box, about six inches deep, and having made 

 the sand level, to lay the petals of the flowers separately on the surface, 

 placing a layer of sand over each layer of petals. The whole were to be 

 covered at top with a mass of sand, and to be set in the sunshine on a hot 

 summer's day, and after a few days the dried flowers were to be carefully 

 removed without breaking. Something of a hartus siccus, on a more extensive 

 scale, was also directed to be made in like manner ; for the author adds, 

 " Also this secret is very requisite for a good simplifier, because he male drie 

 the leafe of any hearbe in this manner, and laie it very drie in his Herball, 

 with the Simple which it representeth, whereby he may easily learn to know 

 the name of any simple which he desireth." Happy the student of plants in 

 our days, who needs to practise no such elaborate and uncertain methods of 

 discovering the names of plants, but may find them all ready arranged for 

 him in his Flora ; and taking his book in hand, may wander forth and learn 

 the characteristics and properties of every flower of the field. The leaves of 

 all the Stocks may be used, say our botanists, for salads or pot-herbs ; that 

 is, they are wholesome, but few would think them any addition to the dish 

 of lettuce or endive. The germs Matthiola was named from the Italian 

 physician of Ferdinand of Austria. He died in 1577, after having published 

 a " laborious commentary " on Dioscorides ; and commentaries in those days 



