ON AN EARLY MENTION OF THE DOUBLE WALLFLOWER. 27 
ON AN EARLY MENTION OF THE DOUBLE WALLFLOWER 
(CHEIRA NTHUS CHEIRI). 
By Edith R. Saunders, Lecturer, late Fellow, Newnham College, 
Cambridge. 
In the course of an account dealing in the earlier part with the history 
of the double Stock (Matthiola incana)* I gave a list, arranged in 
chronological order, of certain botanical works which appeared between 
1530 and 1600, for the purpose of showing at what dates we find 
mention of the double form in this genus, and also in two other plants 
— the Wallflower (Cheiranthus) and the Violet (Viola), both of which 
in early times were grouped with the Stock under the common name 
of Leucoium or Viola owing to their common characteristic of possess- 
ing a sweet scent. In this list the earliest date at which mention 
appears of the double Stock and the double Wallflower is 1568, the 
work in which both references occur being one by the Belgian botanist 
Dodoens entitled " Flo rum et coronariarum odoratarumque non- 
nullarum herbarum historia." 
Since the appearance of the account referred to above I have received 
a letter from Dr. Trabut, Director of the Service botanique of Algeria, 
bringing to my notice the following sentence from a French trans- 
lation f of " The Book of Agriculture " written in Arabic by Ibn al 
Awam in the latter half of the twelfth century : " La giro flee jaune 
est plus double que les autres, et Von dit quelle ne donne point de graine " 
(the yellow giroflee is more double than the others, and is ,said not 
to yield seed). 
This extract from Clement-Mullet's translation leads to the 
extremely interesting supposition that the double Wallflower was 
known and cultivated at least four, and, as we shall see later, perhaps 
five centuries before the date given in my list (1568). It further 
raises at once the question, " What is intended by ' the others ' 
(les autres) ? " Does this expression cover merely forms of the Wall- 
flower (Cheiranthus) other than the yellow, or are Stocks (Matthiola) 
included under it as well ? The French term giroflee, by which the 
Arabic is rendered, as we know, is used to-day in French horticulture 
to include both genera. Were both intended by Ibn al Awam ? 
The result of my endeavour to verify the first point and to answer 
the second gives occasion for the present note. 
* See vol. xl., p. 450, of this Journal. 
f Presumably that by J. J. Clement-Mullet, Paris, 1864-67. An earlier 
translation into Spanish by J. A. Banqueri appeared in 1802. 
