Wallflower

THE WALLFLOWER, Cheiranthus Cheir

THE 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 wallflower, and I very gladly remembered, in connection with the charming spectacle, the lines of Bernard Barton, in reference to the wallflowers of Leiston Abbey--

"And where my favourite abbey rears on high