102 LANGUAGE AND 
of “ gillyflower/’ is frequently mentioned by 
the oldest writers. There has been a long¬ 
standing dispute amongst florigraphists as to 
what plant was really meant by the latter dif- 
fusedly-appliedterm, supposed to be a corruption 
of the French girofiier. Pinks and carnations 
were undoubtedly classed formerly with the 
stock as gillyflowers, but more recently, in order 
to distinguish them, were called clove-gillyflow¬ 
ers and stock-gillyflowers. 
The stock should, indeed, be a favorite flower 
with the softer sex, inasmuch as it is the chosen 
representative of what Madame Rachel so vehe¬ 
mently protests that she has discovered the 
secret elixir of, that is to say, lasting beauty. 
For several centuries, as might be supposed, it 
has been a great pet with the ladies, and care¬ 
fully did the dames of yore cultivate it within 
the circumscribed limits of their castle gardens. 
What was formerly only a little sea-side flower 
now occasionally assumes the dimensions of a 
shrub, and puts forth blossoms almost equalling 
the rose in size, but—mark the but, fair reader 
—sometimes of so evanescent a nature and so 
variable a hue, that some flowers of this species 
have been termed mutabilis, or changeable. So, 
after all, ladies, you must seek another emblem, 
if you wish one, for enduring beauty, for the 
constant changes of this plant only render it a 
fit representative of earthly beauty’s mutability. 
