Cheiranthus Cheiri.

HE wallflower is a prominent
member of the cheerful family
of "old-fashioned" flowers, and
obviously takes its name from
the circumstance that it thrives
on walls, which, indeed, it often
adorns in a most extravagant and
delightful manner, making them
mountains of perfume and beacons
of fire. I was much struck with
the glow of an old bastion at
Amiens in April last, as the sun-
shine streamed through its ruddy
bloom of wallflowers, and I very
gladly remembered, in connection
with the charming spectacle, the
lines of Bernard Barton, in refer-
ence to the wallflowers of Leiston
Abbey-

And where my favourite abbey rears on high
Its crumbling ruins, on their loftiest crest,
Ye wallflowers, shed your tints of golden dye,

On which the morning sunbeams love to rest,-
On which, when glory fills the glowing west,

The parting splendours of the day's decline,
With fascination to the heart address'd,

So tenderly and beautifully shine,

As if reluctant still to leave that hoary shrine."

A snapdragon might, with perfect propriety, be called а "wall" flower, and a full list of plants that commonly grow on walls would include a considerable number of dear old garden friends. The finest wallflower I have seen was a great tuft of wheat that kept company with snapdragons and stone-crops and pellitories on one of the old fruit walls within view of my bedroom windows. I watched it through the summer with ever-increasing joy, anticipating the harvesting of the crop, and the feeding of my parrots with the "golden" grains. But when they were about half-ripe I saw, as I gazed from my window, a great hand rise above the wall and grasp them, and they disappeared as in the twinkling of an eye, while a thrill of horror went through me from head to foot. It was the gardener, who had suddenly resolved to make the wall tidy.

The wallflower has no special renown in literature, and is but rarely mentioned by the poets. It is not a native of this country, and although so thoroughly at home as a wilding on ruins, it is not known as a plant of the rocks, and is not often met with remote from places that have been modified by the hand of man. Its old name was "stock-gillofer" and "wall-gilloflower." Under the last name Parkinson, in the "Paradisus," describes seven sorts: the Common Single, the Great Single, the White, the Common Double, the Pale Double, the Double Red, and the Double Yellow. The "streaked gillivors" that Perdita speaks of as "nature's bastards" were, in all probability, pinks or cloves, but the wallflower and the stock were

known by the same name, and therefore we cannot always determine with precision the flowers referred to when gillivor or gilloflower occurs in our older literature. The Latin name, Cheiranthus, means "hand-flower," and it is most appropriate.

The cultivation of this flower is an extremely simple affair. The seeds should be sown on a plot of newly-dug ground in the month of May; and during rainy weather in July, the plants should be transplanted into rows a foot apart, and the plants six inches apart in the rows. In September or October they should be lifted with care and be at once planted where they are to flower, and in the months of April and May following they will be gay enough. The best of the double kinds is the sulphur yellow, which may be grown into a tree of considerable size, and if planted in a dry sunny situation will last any number of years, and may, indeed, become the pride of the garden. To multiply this variety, cuttings are taken, when they are full-grown but have not become woody, and being planted firmly in sandy soil and kept shaded or covered with a hand-glass, soon make roots, and in the following spring they may be planted out. Well-grown double walls make fine pot plants for the conservatory, and with a little careful forcing may be had in bloom at the turn of the year, and will continue flowering until midsummer. The conditions of success are to be found in the employment of a gritty and somewhat calcareous soil, and affording the plants at all times plenty of light and air. Darkness and damp are death to wallflowers.

"Flower in the crannied wall,

I pluck you out of the crannies ;

Hold you here, root and all, in my hand.

Little flower-but if I could understand
What you are, root and all, and all in all

I should know what God and man is."-TENNYSON.

The Parisian gardeners delight the public by adorning the borders of the parks and promenades with beds of wallflowers of the most lovely description. They are grown as recommended above, and are planted so as to form dense convex masses, which, during April and May, are literally solid with fiery flowers. They mix the blood-red and purple variety, and employ the yellow very sparingly. In this country the yellow kinds are the most esteemed for bedding purposes, and the favourite sorts are the Belvoir Castle Yellow and the orange-coloured Tom Thumb.

If it is desired to establish wallflowers on ruins, rocks, and walls, the seed should be sown in April or May in suitable chinks, and be covered with a little fine soil, and it may be well, if there is danger of the seeds being blown or washed away, to cover them with a brick or tile until they germinate. The single blood-red and single yellow are the best for the purpose.