100 Flowers and How They Got Their Names (19 page)

It is good to grow lavender. The old writers said that it would “comforte the brayne very well” and that you can “imbibe good humour” from it. The herbalist John Gerard warned against its overuse by “unlearned Physitians and . . . foolish women,” but said that it would “helpe the panting and passion of the heart.” Whether this is true or not, a bed of lavender, or a handful of it in a drawer, is a comfort to the nose, the brain, and the heart. It's nearly as good as a hot shower.

BOTANICAL NAME
:
Syringa
.
FAMILY
:
Oleaceae
.

Lilac” comes from the Arabic
laylak
or Persian
nylac
, meaning “blue.” Funnily enough, the name “lilac” now means another color—more purple than blue. The botanical name,
Syringa
, is from the Greek
syrinx
, “pipe,” because the pithy stems can be hollowed out. The mock orange, or philadelphus, is sometimes called syringa too, and has smaller stems. Both were used by the Turks to make pipes, and they were introduced to the West at about the same time.

Ogier Ghiselin de Busbecq probably brought the first lilac back from Turkey, but it had already been described by Pierre Bélon, who had visited the court of Suleiman the Magnificent in Constantinople with an embassy party sent by Francis I. Bélon described strange wonders he saw abroad (even though at home in the French court the king liked to sleep with a lion on his bed) and he said the lilac flower was “like a fox's tail.” The privet, of the same olive family, has similar flowers but their perfume is musky, and John Gerard accused this “white lilac” of “molesting the head in a very strange manner.” Lilacs are sometimes grafted onto the stock of their sturdy privet cousins, and
sometimes these grafted plants die and a privet appears instead of a lilac—to be rooted up by the mystified gardener.

Lilacs and olives seem very distant relatives, but both are permanent anchors of civilization, rusty anchors sometimes in the seas of change. For both live forever and will remain long after the farmers who planted them have died. Olive trees, planted by people whose very language has disappeared, still cling to crumbling Mediterranean terraces. American settlers planted lilacs in front of farmhouse doors, not for usefulness but for beauty, while they struggled to make a new life in the wilderness. Sometimes the slowly cleared fields, the houses, and the walls were no more permanent than those who made them, but the lilacs remained by the ghost porches, leading nowhere.

Bélon's fox-tailed lilac tree was growing in Vienna in 1562, and soon the
Syringa vulgaris
spread wherever people traveled and lived, as it was hardy in all climates. At the end of the nineteenth century, during the Franco-Prussian War, Victor Lemoine introduced new double lilacs. Apparently Lemoine's sight was failing, so his wife had to pollinate the lilac flowers, standing on a stepladder. The Lemoine, or “French,” lilacs are still widely grown today. During this century, new hardy lilacs came West from Asia. Among them is the delightful pink ‘Miss Kim.' A 1987 survey showed that one in every five Koreans has the surname “Kim”—so this lilac honors many young ladies, the original one not now known, rather like a floral unknown soldier.

Even when lilacs die, they retain their perfume. For if you burn their wood, the sweet fragrance endures in the smoke, reminding you that, like all brave souls, lilacs are forever.

BOTANICAL NAME
:
Lilium
.
FAMILY
:
Liliaceae
.

The lily's name may have pre-classical origins. But its Greek name,
leirion
, and its Roman name,
lilium
, gave us the name we know it by. The Romans were said to cure corns with the juice of the bulbs (although one wonders why they had corns if they usually wore sandals). In marriage ceremonies the lily was a symbol of purity which, along with wheat, the symbol of fertility, made an ideal matrimonial mix, still hard to acquire.

Whether or not the Madonna lily is the lily of the fields referred to in the Book of Matthew (see “Anemone”) has fueled debates among biblical scholars, but medieval paintings of the Virgin do almost all include a lily. The lily was adopted by the Church as the Virgin Mary's flower because, unlike most flowers, its scent, similar to the “scent of sweetest frankincense,” cannot be extracted as essential oil, and the flower reflects the purity
and worth of Mary, being “white without and gold within.” The stamens and pistils of the lilies on church altars were removed so they “remained virgin,” and Madonna lilies were always white, in spite of Pliny's instructions for making them purple by soaking the bulbs in red wine.

We still have white “Easter” lilies, and florists remove the stamens, partly (they say) to prevent pollen making a mess and partly to make the gelded blooms last longer. Actually our “Easter” lily, although white, is not the true Madonna lily but one of the Oriental lilies (which come in many colors) introduced in the nineteenth century.

In marriage ceremonies the lily was a symbol of purity which, along with wheat, the symbol of fertility, made an ideal matrimonial mix, still hard to acquire.

Ernest Wilson, called “Chinese Wilson” because he explored so extensively in China, just escaped sacrificing his life to lilies. He went twice to China, the second time in 1910, to collect the regal lily. He had gathered an enormous load of lily bulbs and was on his way home with them when his mule train was caught by an avalanche. He jumped out of his sedan chair just before it was hurled down a precipice. His leg was shattered by a falling rock. There was a mule train coming the other way, and the only way it could pass without, perhaps, causing another avalanche was for Wilson to lie on his back while more than forty mules stepped over him. He reached
safety but was left with what he called a “lily limp.” He died soon after when his car went over the edge of the road, not far from the Arnold Arboretum in Boston where he worked.

The regal lily is white within but wine-colored outside—perhaps a symbol of our lack of true purity where plants are concerned? Cowards, or the “lily-livered,” were said to have a pale white liver—the liver, with the heart, being a source of human courage. Maybe wine red, like blood red, is the color of passionate—if misplaced—bravado, like Wilson's lying in agony on his back and counting mules' bellies so we could have lilies in our gardens.

COMMON NAMES
: Lobelia, cardinal flower.
BOTANICAL NAME
:
Lobelia
.
FAMILY
:
Lobeliaceae
.

The blue lobelia we use most often in our gardens is
Lobelia erinus
, which was imported from South Africa in the 1800s and immediately became very popular as an edging or container plant. Its bright clear blue was much in demand for colored “ribbon” plantings. In the nineteenth century color was rediscovered like a new dimension. Bright colors and their juxtapositions interested not only gardeners but also artists and thinkers. Artists began painting out of doors using new pigment paints like rose madder, cobalt blue, and cadmium yellow, for the first time available in handy metal tubes. The theory of color became a preoccupation ranging from the bedding plans of gardeners to Goethe's studies.

Newly imported tropical plants from South America and Africa
were used to make colored parterres, or geometric beds with different flowers outlining their design. Strong flower colors, like yellow, red, white, and blue, were in great demand. The
Lobelia erinus
, whose bright, clear-blue blooms last all summer and form low, thick carpets resistant to rain and wind damage, was included in most kinds of geometric gardening, and it still is.
Erinus
may be from the Greek
eri
, “early,” meaning “spring flowering.” But although the plant is perennial and will last through the winter if brought inside, we are more apt to plant it outside in spring and let the frost kill it.

Lobelia cardinalis
is a North American plant—supposedly called
cardinalis
by Queen Henrietta Maria, wife of Charles I, because the color reminded her of a cardinal's robe.
Lobelia siphilitica
, also from North America, was described by Peter Kalm (see “Mountain Laurel”) as a cure for the pox (syphilis).
Lobelia cardinalis
and
Lobelia siphilitica
are both perennials that grow well in American borders. They are a clear patriotic red and blue respectively.

The
Lobelia erinus
, whose bright, clear-blue blooms last all summer and form low, thick carpets resistant to rain and wind damage, was included in most kinds of geometric gardening.

Lobelia was named by Charles Plumier (see “Begonia”) for Matthias de l'Obel (see “Candytuft”), who corrected John Gerard's famous
Herball
(and accused him of pilfering material). He also attempted a new classification system of plants, subdividing them by
leaf characteristics. He wrote a history of cereals, a description of roses, and instructions for brewing beer. His own name, Obel, comes from
abele
, the white poplar, and his family crest was
Candore et Spe
, symbolized by the white undersurface of poplar leaves, demonstrating candor, and the green upper surface, hope.