The Origin of the Wallflower

The cheiranthus cheiri–Chaucerized as cherisaunce, and likewise known as heart’s ease, wall violet, winter gillflower, blood-drops-of-Christ, and bloody warrior–had it legendary origin in a castle on the Tweed, whose lord had a fair young daughter, who fell in love with the laird of a neighbor clan, desperately hated by her father. Their secret was discovered, with the result that the maid was confined to the castle. But the Romeo in the case loved his Juliet with a fervor that dared all things, so in the disguise of a minstrel he obtained entrance, and, sitting in apparent carelessness beneath the window where he knew she was listening, he strummed his lute and sang a tale which he knew would translate itself readily to her ear. When she heard a moor-cock call in the night, she was to slip from her room to the rampart. He would contrive to throw to her a rope which she was to fasten to a battlement and let herself down into his arms. The call was sounded, the maid crept out upon the platform, and caught the rope that was thrown to her, but she fastened it improperly and so fell to the cruel stones and died. The powers of white magic that prevailed about the place took belated pity and changed her body to the wallflower, so a new form of beauty appeared where one more prized had been.

From: Myths and Legends of Flowers, Trees, Fruits, and Plants, by Charles M. Skinner, c. 1911 by J.B. Lippincott Company