32 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
flowers. The method of cultivation, he remarks, is the same for all. 
There follow instructions quoted from two other writers, Ibn Hed JAdj 
and Ibn al Faqel (referred to by Banqueri under his other name, 
Abu Abdalah), as to the time of year at which the seeds of the 
different forms should be sown, and then the remark, also on the 
authority of Ibn al Fa£el, which has been differently rendered by 
Ibn al Awam's two translators, and which forms the subject of 
the present discussion. In the preface to his work (p. 77) Clement- 
Mullet mentions that we have no precise information as to the time 
at which Ibn al Fa^el lived, but that Ern. Meyer ("Geschichte 
der Botanik ") concludes that he must have lived before the year 1074, 
since Ibn Hedjadj, by whom he is quoted, lived about this period and 
composed his work on Agriculture in the year 1073 or 1074. Further 
on (Fr. tr. p. 258, Sp. tr. p. 268) Ibn al Awam quotes from another 
writer, the Greek Kastos, who mentions seven different kinds of 
kheiri, of which six, he says, are well known, but the seventh, of 
foreign origin, is little known. Of this seventh form Kastos remarks 
that it is like the others, though it differs from them in colour and 
perfume. It is black (very deep red) in that half of the petals which is 
exposed to view ; the other half, which ends in the claw, is white. It 
is overspread with a yellow tint. Its scent has a strong and more 
agreeable aroma than that of the other kinds except the red kheiri. It 
is indeed more perfumed and more vigorous, supporting better want 
of water and other accidents which may attend it. Oil is obtained 
from this form. On the next page we find the statement that the 
kheiri lends itself to being grafted, and the flower is then at once 
affected by the colour and the nature of the form grafted. But, adds 
Ibn al Awam, this graft is difficult and the operation demands great 
skill. He makes the further interesting comment that the five kinds 
which are not yellow can be grafted on the yellow form. The graft 
shoots and one obtains a hybrid. That Wallflowers of different 
colours are referred to by each of these writers under the name kheiri 
seems certain. All mention one or more forms as being yellow in 
colour, and we have the further evidence of Kastos in regard to the 
preparation of an oil.* The point which remains in doubt is whether 
there is ground for supposing that Stocks are also referred to here. 
As regards the list of different coloured forms quoted from Abou'l 
Khair, we may clearly leave out of account No. 8, described as sky- 
blue. Many of the early writers included under the name Leucoion 
(Viola) a bulbous Monocotyledon which is presumed to have been 
Leucojum aestivum. This is perhaps the plant referred to here. 
Mo. 3 is undoubtedly a Wallflower, and very probably Nos. 6 and 7 
are also. For although as regards No. 6 the colour (red) might indicate 
♦In this connexion see Gerarde (The Herball, p, 371 (1597)), who, quoting 
from Dioscorides' account of Leucoion, says of the Wallflower that the juice was 
used " mixed with some unctious or oilie thing, and boiled to the forme of a lyni- 
ment." Parkinson (loc. cit.) also notes that the plant is generally called Kheiri 
or Cheiri by apothecaries because they make therefrom an oil — cheirinum. 
