ON AN EARLY MENTION OF THE DOUBLE WALLFLOWER. 20, 
wished to bring it to the notice of his readers. As between the French 
and Spanish rendering, therefore, there is no doubt that, so far as the 
nature of the characteristic referred to is concerned, Clement-Mullet's 
view is more consonant with the facts and with other passages in 
the original than that of Banquerl We may then fairly confidently 
carry our date for the double Wallflower back as far as the latter 
half of the twelfth century, and perhaps even a century earlier still.* 
For there is a general consensus of opinion that the plant referred 
to here and elsewhere in Arabic writings as al Kheiri f is the plant 
named by Linnaeus Cheiranthus Cheiri — our Wallflower. So far 
we may feel on safe ground. We now come to the question as to 
whether Ibn al Awam's statement also has reference to the Stock. 
The Spanish rendering makes a definite assertion concerning the 
Wallflower and the Wallflower alone (" El amarillo es niuy endeble " — the 
yellow kind is very weak), without making or implying a comparison 
with any other form. For although the word used in the title of 
the article and understood after the word amarillo, viz. alheli, like 
the French giroflee, covers both Wallflower and Stock, the intro- 
duction of the descriptive term amarillo (yellow) in the present context 
definitely excludes the Stock in this case. Clement-Mullet, on the 
other hand, renders the Arabic word translated by him as " double " 
in the comparative (" plus double que les autres "—more double than the 
others) . We may put the position briefly thus : — If the author intended 
a statement in the absolute form as Banqueri has it, then we have 
no case for the double Stock ; but if the French version is correct 
the case for the Stock needs further investigation. It will therefore 
be well to see what else Ibn al Aw am has to say about al Kheiri. 
We find a passing reference to the plant in an earlier chapter 
(chap, xv.) devoted to the consideration of some curious practices, 
among which is included a method for obtaining variegated flowers. 
Under the heading " Process applicable to the giroflee according 
to the book of properties of Madainy " (Sp. Madianita) appears the 
following instruction : When one wishes the flowers of the giroflee 
to be variegated one takes a slender shoot of the red giroflee, another 
like it of the white giroflee, or two young shoots of both colours ; one 
twists them as one would a string, one plants and waters with care, and 
the flowers which result come variegated, very beautiful and pleasing 
in appearance (Fr. tr. T. T. p. 615, Sp. tr. P. I. p. 655). Clement- 
Mullet evidently takes the view that this article has reference solely 
to the Wallflower, and to leave no doubt on the point he adds in 
brackets the Linnean name Cheiranthus Chetri. But the mention 
of white as one of the two colours to be selected in the operation 
described presents a certain difficulty in the way of accepting this 
interpretation. The mention of red, if Wallflowers were intended, 
would cause us no surprise, for red or " bloody " is commonly given 
by English writers as one of the colours characteristic of the Wall- 
* See later, p. 33. 
f Also spelt Kheyri and Keyri. 
