striped with yellow. Thomson, whose pen was not able to describe so sweet a flower by so terrible a name as that of bloody wall, distinguishes it as

The yellow Wall-flower, stain'd with iron-brown,
And lavish Stock, that scents the garden round.

We have frequently sown the seeds of the rich Iron-brown Coloured Wall-flower on old walls, and they have uniformly degenerated into a plain yellow; we, therefore, consider this to have been the natural colour, and the dark tint to have been first caused by the impregnation of its relative the scarlet Stock, as by blending these two colours a rich iron-brown will be produced.

The Wall-flower has also been cultivated in a double state for more than two centuries and a quarter, as Gerard, in his description of this plant, says, "whereupon do growe most pleasant sweete yellow flowers, very double; which plant is so well knowen to all, that it shall be needlesse to spend much time about the description."

Parkinson is the earliest writer that notices the Wall-flower with striped or variegated petals. Gerard notices only the plain yellow variety.

A most beautiful variety of this plant has lately been introduced from Moscow, by Mr. Lambert, of Boyton House, Wiltshire, which has been named the Chameleon Wall-flower, as its petals at first appearance are of a bright yellow, but gra

dually become paler, until they are nearly blanched white; after which they change to a purple tint, so that the top flowers are yellow, those in the middle white, and the lower blossoms of a lilac or purple hue. This variety is perfectly hardy, but not permanent, as in some instances it has changed to a copper colour, and in others to a plain yellow or white. It appears to us a mixture of the Yellow Wallflower with its kindred the White and Purple Stock.

We possess but few flowers that ornament the garden so gaily and so sweetly as the Wall-flower: the green of its foliage is of the most agreeable tint, and endures through the winter, often treating us with its fragrant and showy petals, amongst the earliest and latest flowers that blossom; and when planted in clumps of six or ten plants each, the effect is both gay and agreeable. By cutting off the branches of seed pods, they will blossom a second time, and we have often kept them for several years by this means, which also insures flowers early in the spring.

The yellow Wall-flower is the most conspicuously gay in the shrubbery, but the dark ironbrown is the most esteemed on the border of the florist. It frequently happens that some plants, when growing upon rich soil, produce flowers with five petals; it is the seed of these that should be principally saved, as they frequently produce double flowers.

April is the season recommended to sow the seeds of the Wall-flower, which are soon of sufficient size to transplant out, either in a nursery-bed or on the spots they are intended to embellish: they should always be planted sufficiently early in the autumn to get a good rooting before the frost approaches, and the drier and poorer the ground the better will these plants endure the winter; but when planted in a rich compost of vegetable mould, cow-dung, and loam, well mixed, they arrive at a state of perfection scarcely surpassed by any European flower, particularly when potted in the spring, and kept in a north-east aspect, where they receive only about three hours sun each day. These should be housed during the winter, giving them but little water until they begin to show flower-buds, when they may be more freely watered, and if they prove of good kinds, they will be found to repay the attention by the beauty and size of their flowers.

The perfectly double varieties, being destitute of the organs of fructification, produce no seed, but may be propagated by slips planted in the spring, which readily take root if kept moist; but these seldom make such fine plants, or produce so large petals, as those raised from seeds that are saved from semi-double flowers.

COWSLIP. Primula veris.

Natural Order Precia. Lysimachiæ, Juss. A Genus of the Pentandria Monogynia Class.

Cowslips wan, that hang the pensive head.

MILTON.

THIS favourite flower of our native fields has had its praises sung by our sweetest poets in a manner that revives the pleasures of our infant days, when gambling on the grass we delighted in the sports of the Cowslip ball, catching and throwing at each other the floral globes we had formed by uniting the clusters of these fragrant blossoms.

How cheerful along the gay mead,

The Daisy and Cowslip appear!

Hymn of Eve.

How exquisitely sweet

This rich display of flowers,

This airy wild of fragrance,

So lovely to the eye,

And to the sense so sweet.

G. B. ANDREINI'S Adam.

When April's smiles the flowery lawn adorn,
And modest Cowslips deck the streamlet's side ;
When fragrant orchards to the roseate morn

Unfold their bloom, in heaven's own colours dyed.

MICKLE.

The flowery May, who from her green lap throws
The yellow Cowslip and the pale Primrose.

MILTON.

This is the time when the village children remind us of the ancient games of Flora

Now let us garlands weave

Of all the fairest flow'rs,

Now at this early dawn.

equal meed receive:

ANDREINI.

At most such garlands from the field

As Cowslips, Pinks, and Pansies yield,
And rural hands can weave.

SHENSTONE.

It is impossible for the most refined imagination to form a more delightful idea than Shakspeare has connected with this flower, in making Ariel sing in her freedom

Where the bee sucks, there lurk I;
In a Cowslip's bell I lie :

There I couch when owls do cry.

Tempest.

Our poet also celebrates this flower in his Midsummer Night's Dream, where, in a few lines, he makes it subservient to the Queen of the Fairies, describes the character of the corolla, and alludes to the institution of tall military courtiers which were pensioned by Queen Elizabeth.

And I serve the fairy queen,

To dew her orbs upon the green:
The Cowslips tall her pensioners be;
In their gold coats spots you see;