- Notes in Dunbar’s Poems, vol. ii., p. 219.
- Johnston’s “Botany of the Eastern Borders,” p. 130.
- Onopordum acanthium.
Fig. 94.—Cotton Thistle (Onopordum acanthium).
<!-- image -->Fig. 95.— Musk Thistle (Carduus nutans).
<!-- image -->Fig. 96.—Scotch coin of 1602. Fig. 97.—Scotch coin of 1599.
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- "The purple-flowered Lady's Thistle, the leaves of which are beautifully diversified with numerous white spots like drops of milk, is vulgarly thought to have been originally marked by the falling of some drops of the Virgin Mary's milk on it, whence, no doubt, its name Lady's—i.e., Our Lady's Thistle." —Brand's "Popular Antiquities," i., p. 48.
- Johnston’s “Botany of the Eastern Borders,” p. 131.
- Professor Balfour, ‘‘The Bass Rock” (1848), p. 419.
The simple daisy, with all its simplicity, is very nearly a royal flower. It was once of great renown, and was called in England "Herb Margaret," or day's eye, but in France it was Marguerite, a name it still bears. It was the device of the unfortunate Margaret of Anjou, and when this queen was in prosperity her nobles wore wreaths of this flower, and had it embroidered on their robes. Another Margaret, the friend of Erasmus, Margaret of Valois, had the daisy flower worn in her honour. It is said that she was called by her brother, Francis I., his "Marguerite of Marguerites."
The Lily of France, viz., the heraldic lily, is evidently one of those corruptions which are not uncommon when the origin or meaning of an emblem is forgotten or has become corrupted. It is generally considered that the Fleur-de-lys is a corruption of Fleur-de-Luce, which, again, was in itself the representative of Fleur-de-Louis. The flower itself was the common purple iris, and not a white lily, and the whole history is apparently summed up in the tradition that when Louis VII., King of France was setting out on his crusade to the Holy Land, he chose the purple iris as his heraldic emblem. Thenceforth it became the Flower of Louis, or Fleur-de-Louis, subsequently Fleur-de-Luce, and in more degenerate times it settled into Fleur-de-lys. The similarity of colouring in the purple iris of Louis and Napoleonic violet is a strange coincidence.
It has been believed that the association of the violet with the Bonaparte dynasty originated in this wise. When Napoleon I. left France for Elba it is generally understood that he said that he would return again in the violet season. During his absence, in the villages about Paris, as well as on the banks of the Lake of Geneva, the violet was the secret symbol by which the people denoted their favourite chief and recognised each other. They also wore rings of a violet colour, with the device—"It will appear again in spring" (Elle reparoitra au printemps). When asked, "Do you like the violet?" If the answer was "Oui" (yes), the inference was that the answerer was not a confederate; but if the answer was "Eh bien!" (well), they recognised a brother conspirator, and completed his sentence, "It will appear again in spring."
The friends of Bonaparte generally wore watch-ribbons, &c., of a violet colour, and he was toasted by the name of General or Corporal Violet among his adherents from the time of his quitting France until his return. When Napoleon I. re-entered the Tuileries on March 20, 1815, after his escape from Elba, his friends saluted his return with the flower of the season—violets—in token of welcome. From that time it continued the Napoleonic flower, so much so that after Waterloo, and the replacement of Louis XVIII. on the throne, violets became seditious wear—dangerous to sport in your button-hole. The white terror waged implacable war against the purple violet. The later Empire could hardly avoid reviving the traditions of the first, and with them violets.
Farewell to thee, France! but when Liberty rallies Once more in thy regions, remember me then— The violet still grows in the depths of thy vallies, Though withered thy tears will unfold it again. (Byron.)
The pseudo-historical Lotophagi, or Lotos-eaters, when stripped of the romance which enveloped them, became resolved into very matter-of-fact vegetarians, living on the jujube. According to Homer they were
A hospitable race; Not prone to ill, nor strange to foreign guest, They eat, they drink, and Nature gives the feast; The trees around them all their fruit produce; Lotos the name; divine nectareous juice! (Thence called Lotophagi) which whoso tastes, Insatiate riots in the sweet repasts, Nor other home, nor other care intends, But quits his house, his country, and his friends.
By comparison of the ancient authors who have mentioned the subject, we find that the Lotos was a sweet pulpy fruit of variable size, but not larger than an olive, with a hard stone (and a stoneless variety from which wine was made). There is no allusion whatever to any peculiar effects resulting from the eating of this fruit of the kind indicated by Homer, so that this portion of the story may be eliminated as poetical. Nor is there any foundation for the romance of our own Laureate of "the mild-eyed melancholy Lotos-eaters" to whom
The gushing of the wave Far away did seem to mourn and rave On alien shores; and if his fellow spake, His voice was thin, as voices from the grave; And deep asleep he seemed, yet all awake, And music in his ears his beating heart did make.
We have discussed this subject in another place, and only need to mention here the conclusion arrived at, that the Lote-bush, which gave its name to the ancient Lotophagi to this day, furnishes its fruit as food to the Arabs of Barbary, and is the Zizyphus Lotus of botanists.
- M. C. Cooke on the "Lotos of the Ancients," in "Popular Science Review," vol. x., p. 256.
INDEX.
Abies Nordmanniana, 159 Acacia Farnesiana, 252 Actinotus, 329 Aldrovandra vesiculosa, 67 Amorphophallus Titanum, 359 Ampelopsis hederacea, 272 Anastatica hierochuntina, 281 Apocynum androsæmifolium, 120 Arachis hypogæa, 168 Arenaria rubra, 263 Aristolochia glauca, 119 Aristolochia goldieana, 362 Aristolochia grandiflora, 361 Arum maculatum, 374 Asplenium trichomanes, 163 Avena fatua, 275 Averrhoa bilimbi, 245 Balsam, or Impatiens, 293 Bamboos, 355 Bee orchis, 269 Bertholletia excelsa, 312 Bignonia capreolata, 208 Bignonia littoralis, 207 Bignonia Tweediana, 210 Bomarea Carderi, 197 Broom plant, 448 Byblis gigantea, 70 Byttneria aspera, 292 Caltha dionæafolia, 328 Camrunga, Averrhoa carambola, 224 Carludovica Plumieri, 379 Carnivorous plants, 23 Carpels of Erodium, 280 Centaurea calcitrapa, 299 Centaurea cyanus, 297 Cephalotus follicularis, 115 Cereus giganteus, 351 Ceropegia Gardneri, 191 Ceropegia Sandersoni, 192 Change of vegetation, 112 Christian origin of rose, 427 Cleavers, Galium aparine, 216 Clematis flammula, 200 Clematis vitalba, 200 Cobæa scandens, 206 Colocasia esculenta, 238 Coronilla rosea, 254 Corydalis claviculata, 203 Couroupita guianensis, 313 Crambe maritima, 162 Cyclamen, 180 Darlingtonia, 95 Dendrobium D'Albertisii, 269 Desmodium gyrans, 223 Dictamnus albus, 387 Dielytra spectabilis, 274 Digestion by Sundews, 35 Discoid samaræ, 333 Dispersion, 291 Dispersion by Birds, 315 Drosophyllum Lusitanicum, 68 Eccentricities of flowers, 267 Echinocystis lobata, 207 Entada scandens, 354 Eucalyptus globulus, 8 Eucalyptus or gum trees, 348 Euphorbia resembling cactus, 322 Macrocystis pyrifera, 368 Mahogany tree, 292 Mandrake, 439 Marigold and luminous flowers, 384 Martynia diandra, 302 Masdevallia, 271 Medicago echinus, 437 Megaclinium bufo, 236 Mesembryanthemum tripolium, 282 Meteoric flowers, 259 Mimicry, 321 Mimicry in fungi, 339 Mimosa pudica, 221 Mirabilis jalapa, 265 Mistletoe, 438 Momordica elaterium, 294 Monkey-pots, 311 Mystic plants, 401 Napoleonic violet, 457 Narcissus, 415 Nelumbium speciosum, 308 Nepenthes ampullacea, 106 Nepenthes bicalcarata, 105 Nepenthes Chelsoni, 110 Nepenthes distillatoria, 109 Nepenthes Rafflesiana, 106 Oenothera biennis, 265 Oncidium zebrinum, 269 Oxalis acetosella, 183, 243 Oxalis sensitiva, 225 Pachystoma Thomsoni, 269 Parachute of Tragopogon, 296 Parnassia palustris, 233 Passiflora edulis, 215 Passiflora gracilis, 207 Passion flower, 430 Pedalium murex, 299 Pentaclethra macrophylla, 285 Phalaris canariensis, 176 Phaseolus vulgaris, 251 Philodendron, 377 Phytelephas macrocarpa, 379 Pinguicula Lusitanica, 123 Pinguicula vulgaris, 123 Pitcher plants, 99 Plants of races, 17 Polar-plant or compass-weed, 170 Polygonum convolvulus, 195 Porlieria hygrometrica, 285 Proboscidea Jussieui, 302 Rafflesia Arnoldi, 359 Rain tree, 13 Relative sizes, 6 Rhizomorpha subterranea, 393 Robinia pseudacacia, 182 Rock rose, Helianthemum, 330 Roridula dentata, 70 Rosa setigera, 216 Rose of Sharon, 427 Royal Hawthorn, 449 Sacred flowers in India, 402 Sanctity of the oak, 422 Sandbox, Hura crepitans, 284 Sarracenia flava, 74 Sarracenia purpurea, 77 Sarracenia variolaris, 72 Scarlet pimpernel, 264 Schnella excisa, 353 Scotch thistle, 452 Sea and forest, 2 Seed of Calosanthes Indica, 335 Seeds of Mesua ferrea, 331 Seed of Zanonia macrocarpa, 334 Selaginella lepidophylla, 287 Sensitive plants, 220 Sequoia gigantea, 346 Silene noctiflora, 266 Similar crested seeds, 336 Sleep of plants, 239 Snake nut of Demerara, 342 Snipe orchis, 269 Solanum dulcamara, 191 Species of plants, 3 Sphaerobolus stellatus, 295 Stellaria media, 249 Stipa pennata, 277 Stipa spartea, 279 Sundews, 23 Sunflowers, 10 Temperature, 371 The olive, 424 Thomasia solanacea, 325 Trapa bicornis, 305 Trapa bispinosa, 305 Tree ferns, 367 Tribulus terrestris, 299 Trifolium repens, 246 Trifolium subterraneum, 165 Tropaeolum, 249 Twiners and climbers, 184 Utricularia clandestina, 134 Utricularia montana, 143 Utricularia neglecta, 133 Utricularia vulgaris, 132 Venus fly-trap, 50 Victoria regia, 364 Welwitschia mirabilis, 349 Xanthium spinosum, 301 Xanthium strumarium, 301
WYMAN AND SONS, PRINTERS, GREAT QUEEN STREET, LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS, LONDON, W.C.
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