THE WALLFLOWER— continued. 
excellence^ so that the false etymology July flowers was invented, the earlier blossoms 
of Wallflowers and Stocks, though with a very different fragrance, came to be known 
as Winter Gilliflowers, or the former was called Yellow or Wall Gilliflower. 
Arab physicians knew some very sweet-scented red flower, possibly the 
cultivated race of Wallflowers now known as Bloody Warriors^ by the name Kheyry. 
William Turner in his “ Names of Herbes ” ( 1 548) writes : — 
“Viola alba is called in greeke Leucoion. There are diuerse sortes of Leucoion. One is called in englishe Cheiry, Hertes 
ease or wal Gelefloure, it groweth vpon the walles, and in the sprynge of the yere, it hath yealowe floures. The Arabians cal 
it Cheiri.” 
Linnaeus seems to have added the Greek termination anthus to the Arabic 
name and then to have invented the meaning (derived from the Greek their^ 
the hand) that the fragrant flowers were suitable to carry in the hand as a bouquet. 
In the uncultivated state of the plant, the erect sepals are tinged with red, but 
the petals are a pure yellow. The lower flowers on the ebracteate inflorescence have 
slightly longer stalks than the others, so that the blossoms gain in conspicuousness 
by being massed together ; but after flowering the main axis elongates, so that the 
fruits are separated one above another. The honey, secreted by two nectaries 
on the receptacle on the inner side of the base of the two shorter stamens, 
collects in the two pouched sepals, and the long upright claws of the petals 
form a tube, almost closed by the anthers, so that short-tongued insects can 
only reach the pollen. Abundance of fruit is perfected, the pods reaching two 
or two and a half inches in length. They are four-angled, each of the two valves 
having a midrib projecting from the base half-way up the pod : there is a short, thick, 
angular, slightly bristly style and a bi-lobed stigma. The seeds are much compressed 
and are surrounded by a thin membranous wing, which apparently aids in their 
dispersal by wind. 
The many beautiful varieties of the Wallflower in cultivation are best 
propagated from the better ripened seed imported from the Continent. It 
should be sown from March to the end of May, all seedlings being transplanted 
in May or June. 
