August 18. THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 373 
WEEKLY CALENDAR. 
M 
1) 
_ 
| 
Weather near London in 
1852. 
Sun 
Rises. 
Sun 
Sets. 
Moon 
R. & S. 
Moon’s 
Age. 
Clock 
af. Sun. 
Day of 
Year. 
AUGUST IS—24, 1S53. 
Barometer, ^ 
Thermo. Wind. 
Rain in 
Inches. 
IS 
Th 
Six-striped Rustic ; woods. 
29.862 —29-741 
74—52 
w. 
— 
52 a. 4 
15 a. 7 
rises. 
© 
3 36 
230 
19 
P 
RIackNeck; moist woods. 
29.930 — 29.909 
/0—55 
N. 
— 
53 
13 
8a 4 
14 
3 22 
231 
20 
S 
Sun’s declin., 12° 25' N. 
30.074 — 29.991 
64—57 
N. 
03 
55 
11 
8 24 
15 
3 8 
232 
21 
Sun 
13 Sunday after Trinity. 
30.205 —30.12S 
72—60 
N. 
_ 
57 
9 
8 40 
16 
2 54 
233 
i 22 
M 
Pear Skipper; chalky pi. 
30.242 —30.213 
72—53 
W. 
58 
7 
8 55 
17 
2 39 
234 
! 23 
Tu 
Black arches ; oaks. 
30.260 — 30.195 
72-55 
N.E. 
— 
V 
5 
9 11 
18 
2 24 
235 ! 
24 
W 
|St. Bartholomew. 
30.168 — 29.995 
71—55 
. S.W. 
1 05 
1 
3 
9 29 
19 
2 8 
236 1 
Meteorology of the Week.—A t Chiswick, from observations 
heat 92 
occurred on the 18th in 1842 ; and the lowest cold, 32° 
, on the 
during the last twenty-six years, the average highest and lowesttem- 
peraturesof these days are 72.1° and 50.3° respectively. The greatest 
21st in 1850. During the period 104 days 
fell. 
were fine, and on 
78 rain 
BRITISH WILD FLOWERS. 
(Continued from page 334.) 
CHEIRANTIIUS. THE WALL FLOWER. 
Generic Character. — Calyx converging, compressed ; 
leaves oblong, concave, erect, deciduous, two opposite ones 
protuberant at the base. Petals reverse-egg-shaped, spread¬ 
ing, entire, or slightly notched ; claws erect, the length of 
the calyx. Stamens with filaments awl-shaped, parallel, 
simple, distinct, each of the two outermost, or shortest, 
embraced at the bottom by a nectariferous gland. An/hcrs 
erect, oblong-arrow-shaped, acute, of two linear lobes. 
German line-iike, compressed, a little swollen at each side, 
the length of the stamens. Style short, nearly cylindrical. 
Stigma either of two thick spreading lobes, or large, round, 
and slightly notched, permanent. Pod line-like, compressed, 
two-edged, rather convex at the sides, mostly with an 
elevated, longitudinal, central line; valves straight; par¬ 
tition membranous. Seeds ranged alternately, in a single 
row, egg-shaped, compressed, slightly bordered at the 
j summit, and often at one side also ; cotyledons accumbent. 
Cheirantiius fruticulosus : Wild Wall-flower; Wall 
Gillitiower ; Yellow Stock Gilliflower; Winter Gilliflower. 
Description. —It is a perennial. Stem shrubby, erect, 
bushy, branched in a determinate manner; branches angular, 
leafy, hoary with close, bristly, silvery hairs, chiefly directed 
downward, like those on both sides of the leaves; though 
some point the contrary way, on the leaves as well as pods, 
being perfectly distinct from the others, nor is there any 
forked or starry down to be found. Leaves crowded, i 
stalked, spear-head-shaped, acute, almost invariably entire; 
the lowermost, if any, slightly toothed; all deep green, 
with more or less of a minute silvery hoariness, espe- , 
cially at the back. Flowers in terminal clusters, sweet- ' 
scented; their petals, always of a uniform bright golden 
yellow, not stained with brown or blood-red as in the garden 
Cheirantiius Cheiri, though the calyx is purplish. Pods 
\ erect, one-and-a-half or two inches long, covered with close 
[ hairs chiefly, if not altogether, pointing upwards; each valve 
marked with an elevated central line, often vanishing about 
i half way up. Style about a line in length in the flower, 
j rather more on the ripe pod, stout, angular, a little bristly, 
crowned with the cloven stigma, whose lobes are finally 
j brought close together. The seeds are flat, with a narrow, 
membranous, deciduous border at one side, as well as at the 
summit, of each. 
i 
Places where found. — Old walls, roofs, and lime-stone j 
rocks. 
History. —It is the Viola lutea, or Yellow Violet, of Gerard e 
who describes it as growing “ upon brick and stone walls, in i 
the corners of churches everywhere, as also among rubbish 
and such other stony places. They flower for the most part 
all the year long, but especially in winter, whereupon the 
people in Cheshire call them Winter Gilliflowers.” 
This clinging to us in places and seasons which decay 
marks as its own has always rendered the Wall-flower the 
emblem of fidelity in misfortune; a virtue so admirable, as 
to have raised this flower to a permanent place among the 
flowers carried at festivals, and hence, probably, the generic 
name from cheir, the hand, and anthos, a flower. The same 
habits have rendered this flower the especial favourite of 
Poets, from Herrick down to Delta. Many are the beau¬ 
tiful outpourings of their verses which crowd upon the 
memory, and we must quote from them a few stanzas. 
To me thy scite disconsolate, 
On turret, wall, or tower, 
Makes thee appear misfortune’s mate, 
And desolation’s dower. 
Thou ask’st no kindly cultured soil 
Thy natal bed to be ; 
Thou need’st not man’s officious toil 
To plant or water thee. 
Sown by the winds, thou meekly rear’st, 
On ruin’s crumbling crest, 
Thy fragile form ; and there appear’st, 
In smiling beauty drest. 
There, in thy bleak and earthless bed, 
Thou brav’st the tempests strife ; 
And giv’st, what else were cold and dead, 
A lingering glow of life. 
So sang the Quaker hard, Bernard Barton, but Herrick, 
the Elizabethan poet, taking a still wilder flight among 
“ the creation of flowers,” tells us that it is only an adven- 
No. CCLV-, Vox., X 
