^ Violets, ^Primroses and Wallflowers $£ 



Lyte call wallflowers ' Hertes Ease.' In his Names of 

 Herbes (1548), Turner says, 'Called in English Cheiry, 

 Hertes ease or wal Gelefloure, it hath yealowe floure.' 

 In his Herbal (1 551), he says : ' Viola that hath the yelow 

 floure is called in English Wal gelefloure or hartes ease.' 

 Lyte, in his translation of Dodoen's Herbal, says, ■ The 

 yellow Gillofer is called in English wall floures and Hartes 

 ease.' Lyte also speaks of them as gillofer-wallflowers, 

 and wall-gillyflowers was a common name for them in 

 the sixteenth century. Parkinson gives the alternative 

 English names, Bee-flowers, Wall-gilloflowers, Winter 

 Gilloflowers and yellow Stocke-Gilloflowers. In Bulleins' 

 Bulwarke of Defence (1562), wallflowers are called ' yellow 

 violets,' ' hartes ease ' and ' Swete Williams.' In the 

 delightful dialogue between Hillarius (the gardener) and 

 Marcellus, the former wishes the latter ' hearts ease,' to 

 which Marcellus replies : ' I do hartely thanke you, for 

 wishing to me so precious a Jewell : so rich a treasure 

 and so heavenly a comforte. For what is more to be 

 desired then hartes ease, and who doe so sodainly slide 

 or slippe awaie as hartes ease : Nothyng. For when 

 adversitie come in at the one doore, eft soones, hartes 

 ease doe run out at the other.' 



In Lincolnshire they used to call the dark double wall- 

 flower ' Bloody Warrior,' and in Wiltshire ' Bleeding 

 Heart.' It is said that the name ' Cheiranthus ' was given 

 by Linnaeus because the flowers had for so long been a 

 favourite for nosegays. As Parkinson said of them, ' The 

 sweetnesse of the flowers causeth them to be generally 

 used in nosegays and to deck up houses.' Wallflowers 

 were valued formerly not only for their beauty and scent, 

 but also for their medicinal properties. In the sixteenth 



E 49 



