Free 100 Flowers and How They Got Their Names by Diana Wells

botanist Peter Collinson in London, and their correspondence is a delight to read.
    Bartram was king’s botanist and responsible for most of the American plant introductions of his time to England, but his contemporary Linnaeus called no flower after him. Later a sandpiper,
Bartramia
, was named for him, and a moss,
Bartramia
, was named for hisson William, who loved birds and was not a gardener. John said, “I took no perticular notice of mosses but looked upon them as A cow looks at a pair of new barn doors yet now I have made A good progress in that branch of botany which realy is A very curious part of vegitation.” The honors of nomenclature, as we have seen, are not necessarily appropriate to their namesakes.
    Evening primroses do not all open in the evening. Most are recognizable by a cross-like stigma across the top of the style, which John Goodyer called “the nailes of the inner parts.” The same formation is shared by the passion flower and was used by missionaries as an allegory to illustrate the Crucifixion. The evening primrose could have been used for the same purpose but seems to have come quietly to Europe with no religious, allegorical, or even medical associations. Since oil of evening primrose is sold nowadays by almost all health food stores, with quite extensive curative claims, it is surprising that in an era of plant medicine, Parkinson dismissed it, saying he “never knew any amongst us to use [it] in Physicke.”
    Its botanical name is from the Greek
oinos
(wine) and
theran
(to hunt). Etymologists seem to think that this name came from another, now unknown, Greek plant that was used to stimulate the appetite for wine. Why there should be a need to stimulate the desire for wine they do not explain. In any case, both the roots and leaves of the evening primrose are said to be edible and somewhat resemble parsnips in taste. Maybe they need a good wine to accompany them.

EVERLASTING FLOWER
    COMMON NAMES : Everlasting, strawflower.
BOTANICAL NAME :
Helichrysum
.
FAMILY :
Asteraceae
.

    Apreoccupation of medieval scholars was discovering the “Riddles of the Queen of Sheba” not specified in the Bible. One popular riddle seen in medieval tapestries was of the queen showing King Solomon two flowers and asking him to guess which was the real one and which the artificial one. The king in his wisdom gets hold of some bees, which fly immediately to the real flower. The real flower, it is assumed, is softpetaled and fragrant. Everlasting flower would have complicated the riddle beautifully if the queen or the scholars had thought of it. It doesn’t look “real” at all, but has straw-like petals and no perfume except, after it dries, a smell that is supposed to repel moths.
    The Egyptians knew the helichrysum, as did Pliny and Dioscorides, who say that the flowers, which last indefinitely, were used to decorate statues of gods. The Greeks made wreaths of the flowers and used them mixed with honey to treat burns. They named the plant for
helios
(the sun) and
chrysos
(gold).
    The Oriental helichrysum came to Britain from Crete in 1619 viathe Padua botanic garden. John Parkinson grew it in his garden, calling it, charmingly, “Golden Flower gentle.” He said it was “called by our English Gentlewomen, Live long and Life everlasting, because of the durabilitie of the flowers in their beautie.”
    It is used nowadays in winter bouquets of dried flowers which rival silk flowers in popularity.
    The
Helichrysum bracteatum
from Australia is the one most often grown in our gardens now, and it is particularly well suited to dry conditions. It was brought back by Sir Joseph Banks, who was on Captain Cook’s expedition to observe the transit of Venus and to seek out the
Terra Australis Incognita
, or “Unknown Southern Land” thought to “balance” the land mass of the Northern Hemisphere. Banks was one of the few who survived the voyage. When