18 FAMILIAR WILD FLOWERS. 



these lovers of plants we may include one of our greatest 

 poets, and one perhaps second to none in his appreciation 

 of natural beauty Scott as we recall his lines 



" The rude stone fence, -with fragrant wallflowers gay, 

 To me more pleasure yields 

 Than all the pomp imperial domes display." 



The fragrance of the wallflower has led to its cultivation ; 

 but though the garden flowers have, by cultivation, departed 

 somewhat from the wild type, the petals being larger and 

 more highly and variously coloured than in the child of 

 nature, the wildling has a sturdy vigour of growth that 

 the more sheltered garden plant lacks. As the "flower 

 of the solitary place, grey ruins' golden crown," it has 

 its praises sung by Moir in a passage that is, unfortu- 

 nately, too long to quote, yet too good to mutilate. Its 

 home and its fragrance are concisely brought before us 

 by Burns, in one of his poems, where he refers to 



" Yon roofless tower, 

 "Where wallflowers scent the dewy air." 



The wallflower is one of our earlier plants, and should 

 be looked for in May and the beginning of June 



' ' When apple-trees in blossom are, 



And cherries of a silken white, 

 And kingcups deck the meadows fair, 



And daffodils in brooks delight ; 

 When golden wallflowers bloom around, 

 And purple violets scent the ground, 

 And lilac 'gins to show her bloom, 

 We then may say the May is come." 



The common name of the plant, wallflower, is, of course, 

 bestowed upon it from its being so essentially a lover of 

 old walls, but we sometimes find it referred to as the gilli- 

 flower, or gillofer, a corruption of the French giroflier and 



