Wallflower

So called because it grows on old walls and ruined buildings. It is a native plant. Similarly, wallcress, wall-creeper, etc., are plants which grow on dry, stony places, or on walls. Wall-fruit is fruit trained against a wall. (See Walnut.)

Herrick has a pretty fancy on the origin of this flower. A fair damsel was long kept in durance vile from her lover; but at last

“Up she got upon a wall,

ʹTempting down to slide withal;

But the silken twist untied,

So she fell, and, bruised, she died.

“Love, in pity of the deed,

And her loving luckless speed,

Turned her to this plant we call

Now the ‘Flower of the wall.ʹ”

Young ladies who sit out against the wall, not having partners during a dance, are called “wallflowers.”

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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.