AN EARLY MENTION OF THE DOUBLE WALLFLOWER. 33 
either a Wallflower or a Stock (see the article in chap. xv. discussed 
above), the description " very deep red " (Fr. tr. rouge foncee, Sp. 
tr. bermejo muy subido) points rather to the old blood-red strain of 
Wallflower (see above, p. 30). Nos. 1, 2, and 4, one may well believe, 
refer to the purple, white, and red varieties of Matthiola incana. In 
both coloured forms we are familiar with the phenomenon of fleurs 
panachees — flowers variegated owing to the appearance of white 
streaks or patches. No. 5 is perhaps another shade of purple Stock, 
as several are known to-day among the garden strains. If then 
we accept the view, and we can hardly do otherwise, that Stocks 
as well as Wallflowers are included in Abou'l Khair's list, and hence 
that the statement of Ibn al Aw am in regard to grafting the non- 
yellow on the yellow form possibly indicates that attempts were made 
to graft one genus on the other, we can well understand the state- 
ment of the latter author that the operation was a difficult one to 
carry out successfully. 
As to grafting, we have evidence that the operation was practised 
in very early times. Ibn al Awam devotes a whole chapter (chap, viii.) 
to this subject. Grafting of Stocks appears to have been a common 
custom until comparatively recently. Blake,* for example, writing 
of Stock-Gilliflowers [i.e. Matthiola incana] says " there are subtle 
wayes of grafting them, the effect of it is to have two severall colours 
of one stock [i.e. stem], it is done in manner as I told you of the 
Cornation-Gilliflowers [i.e. Carnations], so of these, and with a great 
deal more ease you may obtain your desire." We see the same motive 
at this later date as in the time of Ibn al Awam — the desire to produce 
a curiosity. But in none of the statements of these Arabic writers 
concerning grafting and the number of different colour forms do 
we find any remark which sheds further light on the question at issue, 
viz. whether the double Stock as well as the double Wallflower was 
known and in cultivation at this early date. It only remains, there- 
fore, to summarize the conclusions to be drawn from the arguments 
here set forth. 
Conclusions : — 
1. It seems fairly clear that, as was the case up to little more than 
a century ago, Stocks and Wallflowers were not distinguished from 
one another in the Arab writings under consideration, but were both 
grouped together under a common name (kheiri) . 
2. Our view as to whether the double form of either genus is 
referred to in the " Book of Agriculture," a work in Arabic written 
by Ibn al Awam in the twelfth century, depends upon the view which 
we take of a particular passage which has been rendered differently 
by the two writers J. C. Banqueri and J. J. Clement-Mullet, who 
have translated the Arabic into Spanish and French respectively. 
3. It appears beyond doubt that the statement contained in 
the passage in question has reference to the yellow Wallflower (Cheir- 
anthus Cheiri). 
* The Compleat Gardener's Practice, p. 64, 1664. 
VOL. XLII. d 
