Wallflower

Wallflower (Cheiranthus), a genus of plants of the natural order Cruciferae, having the siliques quadrangular from the prominence of the nerves on the back of the valves, the seeds in a single row in each cell, the stigma deeply two-lobed, the lobes bent back. The flowers are in racemes. The species are annual, biennial, or perennial herbaceous plants, some of them almost shrubs. The Common Wallflower (C. cheiri) is found in rocky places and on old walls in the south of Europe, and also, but less abundantly, in the middle of Europe and in Britain. In its wild state its flowers are always yellow; but in cultivation they exhibit a considerable diversity of colours, chiefly brown, purple, and variegated, and they attain a larger size. It is a universal favourite on account of the delicious odour of its flowers. The varieties in cultivation are very numerous, but there are among them no marked distinctions. Double and semi-double flowers are not uncommon. The plant is perennial, but in gardens is generally treated as a biennial, although fine kinds are propagated by cuttings, which soon strike root under a hand-glass. The ordinary mode of cultivation is to sow the seed of an approved kind, and to plant out the seedlings. The flowers have a bitter and cress-like taste, and were formerly used as a medicine.