CRUCIFER®. 155 
The name Gilliflower, or Yellow Flower, is in allusion to its colour, and not, as 
some say, to July, in which month it is beginning to fade away, and it is by no means 
in perfection. In the poorest and commonest gardens this well-known plant is a 
favourite, and its bright blossoms and delightful scent render it welcome alike in the 
cottage and the mansion. Many varieties are produced by cultivation from the original 
plant, the native of our old walls, rocks, and roofs. The flowers vary in size from 
single to double, from yellow to rusty and blood-coloured, or variegated with the same 
colours. None are, however, more fragrant than the wild plant, to which Sir Walter 
Scott alludes in describing the early days of a child :— 
«“ And well the lonely infant knew 
Recesses where the Wallflower grew. 
I deem’d such nooks the sweetest shade 
The sun in all his round surveyed.” 
And again :— 
“The rude stone fence with fragrant Wallflowers gay, 
To me more pleasure yields 
Than all the pomp imperial domes display.” 
It is the Wallflower which Burns introduces into the scenery of a vision of 
former times :— 
“ As I stood by yon roofless tower, 
Where Wallflow’r scents the dewy air, 
And owlet roams in ivy bower, 
Telling the midnight moon her care.” 
Poets have given personality to this favourite flower; and Herrick, who is 
searcely inferior to the older classical poets in his pictures of love-lorn swains and 
adventurous maidens, ascribes the origin and very name of this flower to the spirit 
of a fair young damsel, long detained in durance vile, who braving all perils to steal 
an interview with her lover,— 
“Up she got upon a wall, 
*Tempting down to slide withal ; 
But the silken twist untied, 
So she fell, and bruised, and died. 
Love, in pity of the deed, 
And her loving, luckless speed, 
Turned her to this plant we call 
Now the flower of the wall.” 
The Wallflower is not without reputation as a medicine. Hill the naturalist says : 
“ An infusion of Wallflower is good against the headache and nervous disorders. They 
are good to steep in oil, to which they give a cordial warmth, and which is good against 
pains in the limbs.” 
