CHEIRACA'NTHUS, a genus of Fossil Fishes from the Old Red Sandstone of Gamrie in Forfarshire and the Orkneys. (Agassiz.) CHEIRANTIIUS, a genus of plants belonging to the natural order Crucifenc. This genus is known by possessing square or compressed Eriliques ; a 2-lobed or capitate stigma ; a calyx bi-saccate at the base; ovate compressed seeds in one series. The species are biennial or perennial herbs, or under-shrubs. The leaves are oblong, lanceolate, eutire, or toothed. The flowers are arranged in racemes, and are of various colours—yellow, white, purple, or parti-coloured. Many of the species exhale a delicious odour, and are great favourites in gardens.
C. Cheiri, the common Wall-Flower, has lanceolate entire leaves, which are either smooth or covered with 2-parted oppressed hairs; linear pods, and recurved lobes of the stigma. It is found wild throughout Europe, on old walls and in stony places, and almost constantly amongst the ruins of old castles. On this account it is a great favourite with poets, and is popularly regarded as an emblem of faithfulness in adversity. The general colour is a brown yellow, or, as a poet has called it, the " yellow wall-flower stained with iron brown." It is however subject to considerable varieties of colour even in its wild state, and these are much increased by cultivation. On account of its scent it has been transferred from ruined walls to the flower-borders of gardens, and there, by the doubling of its flowers and the variations of its colours, a number of distinct varieties have been recorded. The following is a list of the most remarkable
varieties found in gardens : a. fibre erimplici. Single Yellow.
A flare plena. Double Yellow.
7. ma.rimea. Large-Flowered Yellow.
E. serrarua. large Yellow, saw-leaved.
e. palulans. Double Yellow, spreading.
ferrugineta. Double Rosy.
O. varies. Double, variegated with purple and yellow.
u. flareacens. Large Double, pale yellow.
K. tkyrsoideus. Bunch-Flowered, yellow.
a. gynantherus. Flowers with anthers changed into carpels.
F. &mantle us. Single and Double, bloody-flowered. The Wall-Flower is a common wild plant in Great Britain. It possesses the slight acridity of the order to which it belongs, and it has been recommended to sow it in pastures for the purpose of pre venting rut in sheep. The wild flower has by some botanists been distinguished from the cultivated plant by the name of C./rattier/logos, but they are both the same.
Several other species of this genus have been described, and are occasionally found in collections in gardens in this country. In their cultivation the hardy shrubby species, such as the common Wall Flower, may be propagated by cuttings, which soon strike root when planted under a hand-glass. Other perennial species will permit of growth by dividing the roots. The annual species may be sown in the open border or on rock-work, where they will flourish, and most of them will survive the winter in such a situation.