^ Violets \ Primroses and Wallflowers $£ 



1 wallflowers ' in a friend's garden. They had been raised 

 from a packet of wallflower seed, but a large number of 

 them looked almost like stocks. The plants were stock- 

 like, and so were the double and very large golden, 

 strongly scented flowers, rather like the flowers of Harpur 

 Crewe, only quite four times the size. They were curious 

 and interesting, but how sad we should all be if our old 

 wallflowers suffered any change ! 



One cannot help wishing that we had kept the prettiest 

 of the old names for wallflowers — ' Chevisaunce.' For 

 this is the name Spenser used : 



1 Strowe me the ground with Daffadowndillies 

 And Cowslips and Kingcups and loved Lillies, 

 The pretty Paunce 

 And the Chevisaunce 

 Shall match with the fayre flowre Delice.' 



We have long since lost the art of giving flowers names. 

 Old flower-names are not only full of meaning, but they 

 describe the essential character of the flower so simply 

 and yet so perfectly that sometimes one cannot help 

 wondering whether these names grew like the flowers 

 themselves, or were they given in more leisured ages when 

 people had time to ' consider ' flowers in the Biblical 

 sense of the word ? In spite of the learned authorities 

 (who tell us there is no such word as ' cherisaunce ') 

 possibly ' chevisaunce ' is a misprint for ' cherisaunce,' 

 which means l comfort.' * Comfort ' describes the true 

 character of this beloved flower, for surely of all flowers 

 wallflowers are the most comforting. The various mean- 

 ings of ' chevisaunce ' all centre round the idea, ' achieve- 

 ment,' and applied to a flower they are meaningless. Is it 

 likely that so great a flower-lover as Spenser would have 



5* 



