THE WALL-FLOWER 
257 
are called by the lark and the cuckoo to awake from their 
winter sleep and deck afresh the hoary tower; but never 
more shall the ruin arise to renewed vigour. 
But though the yellow, scented, and well-known flower 
is always meant when we speak of the wall-flow^er, a few 
others share with it the lofty station in which it flourishes 
so well. There are the handsome and singularly-formed 
blossoms of the snap-dragon (Antirrhinum), now of a 
colour deep as the crimsoned, purple tide which flows in 
living veins, now of a pale and soft rose-coloured hue,, 
or sometimes of a white tint, shaded with a faint blush 
of pink. From out the old crevices of the crumbling 
stone creeps that small flower called familiarly mother-of- 
thousands, but more correctly the ivy-leaved toad-flax. 
Its long, thread-like, reddish stems are covered with a 
number of lobed leaves, the under surfaces of wTich .are 
often flesh-coloured; while the small flower, shaped like 
that of the snap-dragon, is of a purplish lilac. Some- 
times the wild mignonnette, or dyer's-weed (Reseda lute- 
ola), lifts its brimstone - coloured spike above the deep 
yellow of the low stonecrop, whose name well implies its 
uses ; for it furnishes a common crop to the stony surface. 
Its acrid, succulent leaves have procured for it also the 
name of wall-pepper ; and so pungent are they tha.t they 
wall blister the tongue of anyone who tastes them. 
On a few walls of England, though never in the north- 
ern portion of the island, may be found the red wild 
valerian (Valeriana rubra), called commonly pretty-betty, 
and frequent in gardens. Its old name was setewall; 
and Chaucer calls it thus, as does also the gentle-hearted 
and earnest poet of the “Fairy Queen.” Mercurie's 
moist-bloude, too, was one of its old appellations. 
The pellitory of the wall is another common plant on 
old ruins and similar places, and receives its name (Parie- 
taria) from “paries,” a wall. Its stems are of a reddish 
colour; and it has small green flowers, tinged with pur- 
plish-red. It has a singular power of attracting and 
condensing the moisture of the atmosphere, and is often, 
on a dry day, covered with little spangles like dewdrops. 
This plant is very interesting to botanists, because of 
the singular manner in which the stamens shed the pow- 
dery dust which lies upon them. This powder is calle-d 
