Afterword
THE ORCHID IS the last of my seven flowers, and the one that surprised me the most. Here is a flower endowed with overwhelming powers of seduction, of man no less than of insects, one that highlights the gulf between East and West in the way we look at flowers, and what we take those flowers to ‘mean’. Yet the Chinese sage consoling himself with the orchid’s modest blooming, the Japanese daimyo inhaling the orchid’s scent to lift his spirits on the tortuous journey to the capital, and Raymond Chandler’s private eye squirming with disgust among the hothouse blooms of a Californian client all express the power of flowers to hold our attention.
So it is with each of my other flowers; their stories reveal surprising echoes and even more remarkable differences that tell us much about ourselves. I may not love them equally, but each has earned my respect. The lotus of eastern religions has been with me from the beginning; joined with the lotus of ancient Egypt, it was present at the moment when time, creation and human history revealed themselves as mysteries that man wanted – needed – to crack. I still find the sunflower creepy, and would not willingly plant it in my garden, but I love the hope it gave to van Gogh, and like Allen Ginsberg have regained a little of my optimism that flowers can help transform our futures, in life and in art. The lily and the rose are now for me forever joined, jostling for supremacy in Christianity’s roll-call of flowers but also in other cultures; and I can honestly say that the rose retains its crown as the Queen of Flowers, revered almost universally as the ultimate flower of love. The opium poppy has, I believe, revealed its true colours: fair without and foul within, the ‘Joan Silver Pin’ of old, yet the astonishing beauty of both flower and seed-head can still stop me dead. For all its wild beauty and the sumptuous sheen of the old feathered and flamed varieties, the tulip continues to amaze me in the extremes of human folly it has provoked, and in the contrast between its erstwhile beauty and the banality of many modern cultivars. As I said of the rose, we get the flowers we deserve, and I believe we deserve better than this.
And so I shall continue to track down my flowers, the ones I couldn’t find space for here and new ones that catch my eye. Increasingly, it is the weeds and wild flowers to which I am drawn: a tiny but fantastically camouflaged Bee orchid growing on an otherwise unremarkable grass verge beside the estuary near Arnside on the Cumbrian coast; a creamy Rosa arvensis, Shakespeare’s Musk rose, sweetening the air of a Devon lane; pungent stands of milkweed (Asclepias syriaca) lining the roadside of a Pennsylvanian wood. Painted by John White, the governor of Virginia’s Lost Colony in the late sixteenth century, and shown to White’s friend John Gerard, this last flower appeared in Gerard’s great Elizabethan Herball, together with the fervent hope that the colonists were still alive, ‘if neither untimely death by murdering, or pestilence, or corrupt aire, bloodie flixes, or some other mortall sickness hath not destroied them’. They were never found and to this day their fate remains a mystery.
Soon after encountering the Bee orchid, I was taken to the spot where one of England’s last Lady’s slipper orchids still blooms. It wasn’t yet in flower; only the leaves were poking through the earth and despite all the media hullaballoo, there was no armed guard. For all its modesty, this whorl of green leaves spoke to me of Aphrodite’s birthplace, and of those wildly divergent views expressed by Charles Darwin and John Ruskin, about the origin of species and what flowers are for. Guard it well: this slip of a flower contains our histories, yours and mine.
Acknowledgements
My thanks go first of all to the libraries and their staffs who made this book possible and turned the hard graft of research into a pleasure. I would like to single out especially Dr Brent Elliott, historian and archivist to the Royal Horticultural Society; Elizabeth Koper and Elizabeth Gilbert at the RHS Lindley Library in London; staffs of the Rare Books Reading Room of the British Library, and of the London Library, to whom I am indebted for the generous support of its Carlyle membership; the Wellcome Library; the RHS Lindley Library at Wisley; and the library and archives of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Julian Shaw, the International Orchid Hybrid Registrar, kept me abreast of the orchid hybrids, and once again, I am happy to record my debt to RBG Kew’s Dr Mark Nesbitt for his perceptive comments on the manuscript, and for keeping me in touch with developments in ethnobotany.
Among the many people who suggested connections between flowers, literature and art, I would like to thank especially Christopher Bailes, Phil Baker, Professor Catherine Maxwell, Chris Petit, Camilla Swift, Richard Williams, and Robert Irwin for his help with Arabic names. I am particularly grateful to Barbara Latham and David Redmore for introducing me to orchids – to Barbara for her much enjoyed hospitality and to David for his patient and illuminating reading of the manuscript in its final stages. Special thanks go also to Pamela Wilson, a warm and generous host, who took me orchid-hunting around my grandfather’s old home in Silverdale; and to other family and friends who sustained me during the writing of this book, particularly Ros Franey, Chris Potter, Lynn Ritchie, Robert Petit, Catherine King, Louie Burghes, Philippa Campbell, Jude Harris, Andrea Jones, Michael Kerr, the late Roger Payton of the Worshipful Company of Gardeners, Bill Wilson, Judith Wilcox and fellow members of The Gardeners Club.
At Atlantic Books, my thanks go to my editor, Angus MacKinnon, and to James Nightingale; I also want to pay a warm tribute to my agent, Caroline Dawnay of United Agents, for her tireless and enthusiastic support, ably aided until recently by Olivia Hunt and Sophie Scard. Finally, I am grateful to the Hawthornden Trust for a writing fellowship, and to the Royal Literary Fund for my fellowship at King’s College London. Without such help and support, this book could not have been written: thank you all.
Main Sources and Select Bibliography
Principal sources are given for each chapter, and full references appear online – see www.atlantic-books.co.uk.
The following works provide the backbone for several chapters; subsequent mentions of listed works use short titles only.
Pedanius Dioscorides, De Materia Medica, trans. T. A. Osbaldeston and R. P. A. Wood (Johannesburg, Ibidis, 2000).
John G erard, The Herball or Generall Historie of Plantes (London, 1597).
John Gerard, The Herball or Generall Historie of Plantes, amended and enlarged by Thomas Johnson (London, 1633).
Henry Hawkins, Partheneia Sacra, or The Mysterious and Delicious Garden of the Sacred Parthenes (Rouen, 1633).
Herodotus, The Histories, trans. Aubrey de Sélincourt (London, Penguin Books, 2003).
Philip Miller, The Gardeners Dictionary, especially the first edn (London, 1731) and the eighth edn, revised in accordance with Linnaean botany (London, 1768).
John Parkinson, Paradisi in Sole Paradisus Terrestris (London, 1629).
John Parkinson, Theatrum Botanicum: The Theater of Plants (London, 1640).
The Natural History of Pliny, trans. John Bostock and H. T. Riley (6 vols, London, 1855).
Theophrastus, Enquiry into Plants and Minor Works on Odours and Weather Signs, trans. Sir Arthur Hort (2 vols, London, William Heinemann, 1916).
Robert John Thornton, Temple of Flora, or Garden of the Botanist, Poet, Painter and Philosopher (London, 1812).
William Robinson, The English Flower Garden (London, John Murray, 1883).
Also frequently to hand were these works of criticism and commentary:
Wilfrid Blunt and William T. Stearn, The Art of Botanical Illustration (Woodbridge, Antique Collectors’ Club, revised edn, 1994).
Jack Goody, The Culture of Flowers (Cambridge University Press, 1993).
Debra N. Mancoff, Flora Symbolica: Flowers in Pre-Raphaelite Art (Munich, Prestel, 2003).
Andrew Moore and Christopher Garibaldi, Flower Power: The Meaning of Flowers in Art (London, Philip Wilson Publishers, 2003).
Lotus
Among general works, these were especially helpful on ancient Egyptian and eastern lotuses: Perry D. Slocum, Waterlilies and Lotuses: Species, Cultivars, and N
ew Hybrids (Portland, Timber Press, 2005); and Mark Griffiths, The Lotus Quest (London, Chatto & Windus, 2009).
Of the many works consulted on the cosmology, mythology and culture of ancient Egypt, I am indebted to Donald B. Redford (ed.), The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt (3 vols, Oxford University Press, 2001); John H. Taylor (ed.), Journey Through the Afterlife: Ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead (Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press, 2010); G. Maspero, Histoire Ancienne des Peuples de l’Orient Classique (3 vols, Paris, Librairie Hachette, 1895–9); The Egyptian Book of the Dead: The Book of Going Forth by Day, second revised edn (Chicago, KWS Publishers, 1998).
For Tutankhamun’s flowers and artefacts I consulted Howard Carter and A. C. Mace, The Tomb of Tut.ankh.Amen (3 vols, London, Cassell & Co., 1923–33); F. Nigel Hepper, Pharaoh’s Flowers: The Botanical Treasures of Tutankhamun (London, HMSO, 1990); John Bellinger, Ancient Egyptian Gardens (Sheffield, Amarna Publishing, 2008); and Lise Manniche, An Ancient Egyptian Herbal (London, British Museum Press, 1999), pp. 27–31.
These works were helpful on lotuses in ancient Egyptian gardens, tomb decorations and everyday life: Nathalie Beaux, Le Cabinet de Curiosités de Thoutmosis III: Plantes et Animaux du ‘Jardin Botanique’ de Karnak (Leuven, Departement Oriëntalistick/Peeters, 1990); Alix Wilkinson, The Garden in Ancient Egypt (London, Rubicon Press, 1998); Tassilio Wengel, The Art of Gardening Through the Ages, trans. Leonard Goldman (Leipzig, Edition Leipzig, 1987); Percy E. Newberry, El Bersheh: Part 1 (The Tomb of Tehuti-Hetep) (London, Egyptian Exploration Fund, n.d.); and J. G. Wilkinson, Manners and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians (3 vols, London, John Murray, 1837).
On the narcotic properties of ancient Egyptian water lilies, see William A. Emboden, ‘Transcultural use of narcotic water lilies in ancient Egyptian and Maya drug ritual’, Journal of Ethno-Pharmacology, vol. 3, no. 1 (1981), pp. 39–83; David J. Counsell, ‘Intoxicants in ancient Egypt? Opium, nymphaea, coca and tobacco’, in Rosalie David (ed.), Egyptian Mummies and Modern Science (Cambridge University Press, 2008), pp. 195–215; and Joyce Tydesley, The Private Lives of the Pharaohs (London, Channel 4 Books, 2000), pp. 171–5.
For the lotuses of ancient Greece and Rome, see Herodotus, The Histories, pp. 129–30; The Geography of Strabo, trans. H. C. Hamilton and W. Falconer (3 vols, London, Henry G. Bohn, 1854), vol. 3, p. 88; Theophrastus, Enquiry into Plants, vol. 1, pp. 351–5 (from Book 4, Chapter 8); The Natural History of Pliny, vol. 3, pp. 198–200 (from Book 13, Chapter 32), and vol. 4, p. 45 (from Book 18, Chapter 30); Lucius Junius Moderatus Columella, trans. E. S. Forster and Edward H. Heffner, On Agriculture [De Re Rustica] (3 vols, London, William Heinemann, 1954), vol. 2, pp. 397–9; P. G. P. Meyboom, The Nile Mosaic of Palestrina: Early Evidence of Egyptian Religion in Italy (Leiden, E. J. Brill, 1994); and Wilhelmina Feemster Jashemski and Frederick G. Meyer, The Natural History of Pompeii (Cambridge University Press, 2002).
Napoleon’s lotuses are portrayed in Description de l’Égypte, ou Recueil des Observations et des Recherches qui ont été faites en Égypte pendant l’expédition de l’armée française (20 vols, Paris, 1809–28), vol. 9, pp. 303–13, and Planches, Histoire Naturelle, vol. 2, ‘Botanique’. Redouté’s blue water lily appears in Pierre-Joseph Redouté, Choix des Plus Belles Fleurs (Paris, 1827); and see Martyn Rix and William T. Stearn, Redouté’s Fairest Flowers (London, The Herbert Press/British Museum, 1987). For Robert Thornton’s lotuses, see Geoffrey Grigson’s introduction to Thornton’s Temple of Flora (London, Collins, 1951), pp. 1–13, and William T. Stearn’s botanical notes, p. 20.
These are my main sources for the mythological history of the sacred lotus in India: Dr Raj Pandit Sharma, ‘Flowers and plants in Hinduism’, consulted 8 June 2011 on www.hinducounciluk.org; Heinrich Zimmer, Myths and Symbols in Indian Art and Civilization, ed. Joseph Campbell (Washington DC, Pantheon Books, 1947); Carol Radcliffe Bolon, Forms of the Goddess Lajja Gauri in Indian Art (University Park, Pa, Pennsylvania State University Press, 1992); and Upanisads, trans. from Sanskrit by Patrick Olivelle (Oxford University Press, 1996).
For the sacred lotus in Nepal, Buddhism and South-East Asia, I consulted Narayan P. Manadhar, Plants and People of Nepal (Portland, Oregon, Timber Press, 2002); Dr Sarla Khosla, Lalitavistara and the Evolution of the Buddha Legend (New Delhi, Galaxy Publications, 1991); S. K. Gupta, Elephant in Indian Art and Mythology (New Delhi, Abhinav Publications, 1983); The Lalita-Vistara: Memoirs of the Early Life of Sakya Sinha, trans. Rajendralala Mitra (Calcutta, 1881); Moore and Garibaldi, Flower Power, p. 25; Martin Lerner and Steven Kossak, The Lotus Transcendent: Indian and Southeast Asian Art from the Samuel Eilenberg Collection (New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1991); and W. Zwalf (ed.), Buddhism: Art and Faith (London, British Museum Publications, 1985).
For the history of the lotus in China and Japan, see Seizo Kashioka and Mikinori Ogisu, Illustrated History and Principle of the Traditional Floriculture in Japan, trans. Tetsuo Koyama et al. (Osaka, ABOC-sha Co. Ltd, 1997). On the lotus in Chinese literature, gardens, art, ornament and customs see: Maggie Keswick, The Chinese Garden: History, Art and Architecture, revised by Alison Hardie (London, Frances Lincoln, 2003); Arthur Waley, The Book of Songs (London, George Allen & Unwin, 1937); Hans H. Frankel, The Flowering Plum and the Palace Lady: Interpretations of Chinese Poetry (New Haven, Yale University Press, 1976); Loraine E. Kuck, The Art of Japanese Gardens (New York, The Japan Society, 1941); Alfred Koehn, Chinese Flower Symbolism (Tokyo, At the Lotus Court, 1954); Jessica Rawson, Chinese Ornament: The Lotus and the Dragon (London, British Museum Publications, 1984); H. A. Lorentz, A View of Chinese Rugs from the Seventeenth to the Twentieth Century (London, Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1972); P. R. J. Ford, Oriental Carpet Design: A Guide to Traditional Motifs, Patterns and Symbols (London, Thames and Hudson, 1992); Howard S. Levy, The Lotus Lovers: The Complete History of the Curious Erotic Custom of Footbinding in China (Buffalo, NY, Prometheus Books, 1992); The Secret of the Golden Flower: A Chinese Book of Life, trans. Richard Wilhelm (London, Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1962); and C. G. Jung, Psychology and Alchemy, vol. 12 of the collected works of C. G. Jung, ed. Sir Herbert Read et al. (London, Routledge & Kegan Paul, second edn, 1968).
For the lotus in nineteenth- and twentieth-century Japan I consulted: The Flowers and Gardens of Japan, painted by Ella du Cane, described by Florence du Cane (London, Adam & Charles, 1908); Christopher Dresser, Japan: Its Architecture, Art, and Art Manufactures (London, Longmans Green & Co., 1882); Josiah Conder, Landscape Gardening in Japan (Tokyo, 1893); Josiah Conder, The Flowers of Japan and the Art of Floral Arrangement (Tokyo, 1891); Alfred Koehn, Japanese Flower Symbolism (Peiping, China, Lotus Court Publications, 1937); Alfred Parsons, Notes in Japan (London, Osgood, McIlvaine & Co., 1896); Ayako Ono, Japonisme in Britain: Whistler, Menpes, Henry, Hornel and Nineteenth-Century Japan (London, RoutledgeCurzon, 2003); and Pierre Loti (a pseudonym of the French novelist and naval officer Julien Viaud), Japan, Madame Chrysanthemum, trans. Laura Ensor (London, KPI, 1985).
These are some of the works I consulted for the lotus in poetry and art: Edward S. Forster, ‘Trees and plants in Homer’, The Classical Review, vol. 50, no. 3 (July 1936), pp. 97–104; Homer, The Odyssey, trans. Robert Fagles (New York, Penguin, 1996); Alfred Tennyson, Oenone and Lotos-Eaters, ed. F. A. Cavenagh (Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1915); Constance Classen, David Howes and Anthony Synnott, Aroma: The Cultural History of Smell (London, Routledge, 1994); Charles Baudelaire, ‘Le Voyage’, in Les Fleurs du Mal et Autres Poèmes (Paris, Garnier-Flammarion, 1964), pp. 150–5; Howard Hodgkin, Indian Leaves (London, Petersburg Press, c.1982); Michael Compton, Howard Hodgkin’s Indian Leaves (London, Tate Gallery, 1982); T. S. Eliot, Four Quartets (London, Faber and Faber, 1956); Peter Harris (ed.), Zen Poems (London, Everyman’s Library, 1999); and Fu Ji Tsang, The Meaning of Flowers: A Chinese Painter’s Perspective (Paris, Flammarion, 2004).
Vivian Russell writes of Monet’s water lilies in Monet’s Garden: Through the Seasons at Giverny (London, Frances Lincoln, 1995). The RHS
Lindley Library in London holds Latour-Marliac’s nursery catalogue for 1996/7.
Lily
Keat’s lily comes from ‘La Belle Dame San Merci’, Ballad, The Poetical Works of John Keats (London, Maccmillan, 1884), pp. 254–6. These are my main sources on the Minoan lilies of Crete and Thera (Santorini): Gisela Walberg, ‘Minoan floral iconography’ in EikΩn, Aegean Bronze Age Iconography: Shaping a Methodology, ed. Robert Laffineur and Janice L. Crowley (Liège, Université de Liège, 1992); Sir Arthur Evans, The Palace of Minos (6 vols, London, Macmillan, 1921–36); Hellmut Baumann, Greek Wild Flowers and Plant Lore in Ancient Greece, trans. William T. Stearn and Eldwyth Ruth Stearn (London, The Herbert Press, 1993); Maria C. Shaw, ‘The “Priest-King” fresco from Knossos: man, woman, priest, king, or someone else?’, in Essays in Honor of Sara A. Immerwahr, ed. Anne P. Chapin (Athens, The American School of Classical Studies at Athens, 2004), pp. 65–84; Christos Doumas, The Wall-Paintings of Thera, trans. Alex Doumas (Athens, The Thera Foundation, 1992); and Lyvia Morgan, The Miniature Wall Paintings of Thera: A Study in Aegean Culture and Iconography (Cambridge University Press, 1988).
For lilies in ancient Egypt and ancient Greece, see Hepper, Pharaoh’s Flowers, p. 25; Alix Wilkinson, The Garden in Ancient Egypt, pp. 39–40; Lin Foxhall, ‘Environments and landscapes of Greek culture’, in Konrad H. Kinzl (ed.), A Companion to the Classical Greek World (Oxford, Blackwell, 2006), pp. 245–80; Hesiod: The Homeric Hymns and Homerica, trans. Hugh G. Evelyn-White (London, William Heinemann, 1914), p. 81; and H. B. D. Woodcock and W. T. Stearn, Lilies of the World: Their Cultivation and Classification (London, Country Life, 1950).
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