204 TETRADYNAMIA— SILIQUOSA. Matthiola. 



• pods, being perfectly distinct, as it seems to me, from the others, 

 nor is there any forked or starry pubescence to be found. -Leaves 

 crowded, stalked, lanceolate, acute, almost invariably entire ; 

 the lowermost, if any, slightly serrated ; all deep green, with 

 more or less of a minute silvery hoariness, especially at the back. 

 Fl. corymbose, sweet-scented ; their petah always of a uniform 

 bright golden yellow, not stained with brown or blood-red as in 

 the garden Cli. Cheiri, though the calyx is purplish. Pods race- 

 mose, erect, 14- or 2 inches long, covered with close hairs chiefly, 

 if not altogether, pointing upwards ; each valve marked with an 

 elevated central line, often vanishing about half way up, and 

 hardlyTdiscemible at all in Mr. Davali's Swiss specimens ; though 

 very strong in some French ones, with shorter broader pods, 

 which most accord with Dr. Hooker's, the style excepted. Style, 

 in all the specimens I have seen, about a line in length in the 

 flower, rather more on the ripe pod, stout, angular, a little 

 bristly, crowned with the cloven stigma, whose lobes are finally 

 brought close together. The seeds are flat, with a narrow, mem- 

 branous, deciduous border at one side, as well as at the summit, 

 of each. 

 The late Mr. Crowe, whose remarks were always worthy of atten- 

 tion, and to whom we owe so much for his unrivalled discrimi- 

 nation of Willows, observed that the petals of our wild C//eJran- 

 thus merely become recurved as they advance towards decay, 

 and do not hang loosely flaccid, like those of the true Ch. Cheiri, 

 or Blood Wall-flower of the gardens. There is indeed a culti- 

 vated double variety of Ch.fruticulosus, always with plain yellow 

 flowers, and though more luxuriant than the wild plant, still 

 unlike the Ch. Cheiri. Dr. Hooker appears to me quite cor- 

 rect in his Fl. Scot., except a slip of the pen, leaves for petals ; 

 but I quote his Fl. Lond. and its luminous dissections, with he- 

 sitation, on account of the strongly-ribbed valves of the short 

 pods, and the almost total want of a style, such as I have never 

 seen in any Wall-flower. Ch. Cheiri and its supposed varieties 

 enumerated by DeCandoUe, require more correct examination 

 than they have, as yet, received. I do not presume to give a 

 decisive opinion concerning them, but merely describe what I 

 have seen, depending with implicit confidence on my friend 

 Hooker for the accuracy of his representations. Viola lutea, 

 Fuchs. Hist. 458,/, comes nearest to his plate and description. 



338. MATTHIOLA. Stock. 



Br. in Ait. H. Kew. v. 4. 1 19. DeCand. Syst. v. 2. 162. Comp. ed.4. 

 108. 



Cal. converging, a little compressed ; leaves linear-oblong, 

 concave, erect, deciduous, 2 opposite ones protuberant at 

 the base. Pet. obovate, spreading, entire, or with a broad 



