[f. WALL sb.1 Cf. G. mauerblume.]
1. A plant of the genus Cheiranthus (N.O. Cruciferæ), esp. C. Cheiri, growing wild on old walls, on rocks, in quarries, etc., and cultivated in gardens for its fragrant flowers (normally yellow or orange, though other colors are produced by cultivation). Also called GILLIFLOWER.
1578. Lyte, Dodoens, II. iii. 150. In English Yellow Gillofers, Wall floures … in French Violes iaunes,… in high Douche Geel veiel.
1597. Gerarde, Herbal, II. cxiii. 370. The stalkes of the Wall flower are full of greene branches.
1615. W. Lawson, New Orchard (1623), 12. Dry wall of earth … whereon at Mighill-tide it will be good to sow Wall-flowers.
1650. T. Bayly, Herba Parietis, Ded. 1. The Wall-flower hath been called (as the most sacred Compellation) by the Herbalists, Dames-Violets, Damasen or Matron-Violets, or Queenes Gillyflowers.
1657. S. Purchas, Pol. Flying-Insects, I. xv. 93. Double … Wall-flowers.
1707–21. Mortimer, Husb. (ed. 5), II. 245. Wall Flowers are of several sorts, as the common Ones, the great single Ones, the great double Ones, the single White, the double White, the double Red, and the pale Yellow.
1728–46. Thomson, Spring, 531.
| The yellow Wall-Flower, stain’d with iron Brown; | |
| And lavish Stock that scents the Garden round. |
1779. Sheridan, Critic, II. ii. The vulgar wallflower, and smart gillyflower.
1814. Scott, Lord of Isles, III. i. The wall-flower waves not on the ruin’d hold.
1818. Byron, Ch. Har., IV. cvii. Cypress and ivy, weed and wall-flower grown Matted and mass’d together.
1838. Dickens, Nickleby, xl. There is a double-wallflower at No. 6 in the court, is there?
1856. Delamer, Fl. Gard. (1861), 158. Wallflower.… The single varieties, which are the most odoriferous, are raised from seed. There are yellow, brown, and purple Double Wallflowers, propagated by cuttings.
1858. Glenny, Everyday Bk., 266/1. Wallflowers and Sweetwilliams may be planted out in beds.
1880. ‘Ouida,’ Moths, I. 83. There were lavender and a few homely stocks and wallflowers growing in the poor soil about the fences of the houses.
b. German wallflower.
1882. Garden, 25 Feb., 135/1. Double German Wallflowers … are now useful pot plants.
c. Applied to plants of other genera. Native wallflower, the Tasmanian plant Pultenæa subumbrosa (N.O. Leguminosæ); also, in Australia, one of the Poison-bushes, Gastrolobium grandiflorum (Morris, Austral Engl., 1898). Western wallflower, a name for certain American species of Erysimum (Treas. Bot., 1866; Cent. Dict., 1891).
2. slang. (See quots.) ? Obs.
1804. Sporting Mag., XXIII. 220. A coat suspended on a peg in Monmouth-street is called a wall flower.
1848. Sinks of Lond., 129. Wall flowers, old clothes exposed for sale.
3. colloq. A lady who keeps her seat at the side of a room during dancing, whether because she cannot find a partner or by her own choice.
1820. Praed, County Ball, 148. The maiden wall-flowers of the room.
1840. New Monthly Mag., LIX. 340. He … dances quadrilles with every wall-flower in the room.
1881. H. James, Portr. Lady, xliii. ‘Are you not dancing?’ ‘As you see, I’m a wallflower.’
1888. F. Hume, Mme. Midas, II. ix. She has not your capability at playing wallflower.
4. attrib. in designations of color, as wallflower brown, red; also separately as a color-name. Also Comb. wallflower-leaved adj.
1786. Abercrombie, Gard. Assist., Arrangem. 19. Hardy Annuals…. Stock gilliflower,… White wallflower leaved.
1883. Daily News, 17 May, 6/1. Lined with silk … in some decided colour, such as old gold, wallflower red, French grey, or pale blue. Ibid., 22 Sept., 3/3. A wide bias band of wallflower velvet.
1913. Daily Graphic, 24 March, 13/1. The most notable colours in the crowd included the following:… Wallflower and café au lait browns.
