Spenser, Edmund 109
spn 101
spotted Martagon (Lilium canadense) 51
Stafford, Lady 119
Stein, Gertrude 161
Stout, Rex 231
Strabo 9–10
Strabo, Walahfrid 46, 108
Su Shih 205
suffragettes 228
Süleyman I, the Magnificent, Sultan 116, 168, 169
Sumerians 101
sunflower 65, 67–96, 235
the Aesthetic Movement and 87–90, 89
American range 68
Aztecs and 70–3, 72
Besler’s engravings 78
Blake and 81–2
in Christian iconography 67, 80
domestication 68–9
flowers 67, 76, 78
heliotropic properties 67–8, 75–6, 79–80
impact on Western art and literature 86–7, 90–3
introduction to Europe 67, 73–6
introduction to Russia 94
in the language of flowers 84–5
and love 79–80
medicinal qualities and uses 74, 75, 77
Monardes’ description 74
in North America 68–73, 94–5
oil 94
origins 68
Passe, Crispin de, the Younger, engraving 78
and Peru 69, 75
sacred associations 67
spread of 73–4
sunflower craze 85–90, 89
symbolism 67–8, 79–82, 84–5, 95–6
twentieth-century history 93–6
van Gogh’s 90–3, 93
varieties 82–3
Wilde and 85–6
see also Helianthus annuus
Swainson, William 218
Sweert, Emanuel 110
Swinburne, Algernon Charles 61, 88
Sydenham, Thomas 115–16
symbolism
the language of flowers 84–5, 120–2
lotus 146–7
mandala symbol 24, 159
opium poppy 107–8, 120–2
orchid 202, 227–8
rose 134, 146–54, 157–62
sunflower 67–8, 79–82, 84–5, 95–6
tulip 165, 171
Symphonie Fantastique (Berlioz) 119
Syria 9, 11
Taliban, the 129–30
Talmud, the 151
Taoism 21, 206, 208
Tennessee 68–9
Tennyson, Alfred Lord 30
Tenochtitlan 70
Thackeray, William Makepeace, 84–5
Thailand 130
Theophrastus 10–12, 29, 40–1, 79, 103–4, 135, 209, 210
Thera (Santorini) 36, 38–9, 39
theriac 113
Thibaut IV, king of Navarre 144
Thoreau, Henry David 53, 230
Thornton, Robert John 15–16
Thunberg, Karl Pehr 58
Thutmose III, King 7–8
Tibet 20
Tiger lily (Lilium lancifolium) 54, 55–6, 55
Tissot, James 87
tobacco 71–2
Tokugawa Ienari 208
Tott, Baron de 117
Tradescant, John, the Elder 179
Tradescant, John, the Younger 179
Tudor rose, the 155–6
Tulipa 165–97
T. clusiana 165
T. saxatalis 165
T. sylvestris 165
T. gesneriana 170, 170
tulip 163, 165–97
Agate Hanmer 181
Belle Isabelle 181
Belle Susanne 181
in Britain 174–5, 177–82, 182, 192–5, 196–7
in Christian iconography 191
colour 172–4, 180–1, 189, 194
derivation of name 171
displaces the rose 191–2
Dutch bulb production 196
florilegia 177
florists and 192–5
in France 182–3
Gerard on 177–8
Gesner’s depiction 170, 170
impact on Western art and literature 184–5
introduction to Europe 166–7, 169–71, 170
Istanbul tulips 189–90, 196
Lâle-i Rûmi (Ottoman tulips) 168–71
medicinal qualities and uses 176
origins 166–7
Parkinson on 178–9
prices 175, 179, 183, 185–7, 188, 189, 194
sacred associations 168, 191
scent 166, 172
Semper Augustus 185
shape 168–9, 189, 194
show 194
spread in Europe 171–7
symbolism 165, 171
trade in 175–6, 184–8, 196
Tulipa Turcarum 169
varieties 172, 183, 189–90
see also Tulipa
tulip mania
Dutch 166, 184–8, 191
European 173–4
Turkey 166–9, 188–91
Turkey see Ottoman Turkey
Turner, William 114–15, 143
Tutankhamun 7, 101
Twain, Mark 126
Ukraine 94
Unicorn Tapestries 211
United States of America
lotus in 31–2
national floral emblem 157, 161
opium in 126, 128
orchid in 228
rose in 161
sunflower in 94–5
White House Rose Garden 133, 157
Upanisads, the 18–19
Vallett, Pierre 177
Van der Helst, Bartholomeus 80
Van Dyck, Anthony 80–1
Van Gogh, Theo 90–1, 92, 93
Van Gogh, Vincent 90–3, 93, 235
Van Goyen, Jan 187
Van Hogelande, Johan 175
Van Lathem, Lieven 121
Van Oosten, Henry 174
Van Ravelingen, Joost 185
Van Rheede tot Drakenstein, Hendrik 216
Van Veen, Otto 80
Van Wassenaer, Nicolaes 185
Vanderbilts, the 140–1
Veda, the 17–18
Veitch, James, Exotic Nursery 223–4, 225–6
Veitch, John Gould 59
Venus (goddess) 44–5, 134, 147–8
Victoria, Queen, Golden Jubilee orchid bouquet 227
Vienna 172, 175
Vietnam 130
Virgil 43
Virginia 76
Virginian swamp lily (Lilium superbum) 53
Vishnu (god) 16, 17
Visscher, Roemer 185
Wager, Admiral Sir Charles 216
Wakefield and North of England Tulip Society 196–7
Wang Kuei-hsüeh 208
Wang Wei 32
Wars of the Roses 155
Washington, George 161
water lilies (Nymphaea) 10, 11
Waterhouse, John William 30
weeds 236
Wells, H. G. 231
Whistler, James McNeill 28, 60
White, John 76, 236
White House Rose Garden 133, 157
White Lotus Society 24
Wilberforce, William 119
wild flowers 236
wild gardening 111–12
Wilde, Oscar 62, 63, 85–6, 88
Wilhelm, Richard 23
Williams, Benjamin Samuel 223
Wilson, Ernest ‘Chinese’ 35, 56–7
Winder, Paul 232
Women’s Social and Political Union 228
Wordsworth, Dorothy 120
Wordsworth, William 117, 120
Wright, Alder 129
Wu Ti 139–40
Wyche, Sir Peter 179
Xiao Yi (Hsiao I) 21–2
Yeats, W. B. 49, 160
York and Lancaster rose 155
Zhou Dunyi (Chou Tun-i) 21
Ziziphus lotus (North African jujube) 29–30
Zuccari, Taddeo 121
Endnotes
1. Principal sources appear at the end of the book, on pages 239–7.
2. A plant sometimes known as the In
dian blue lotus is, confusingly, another water lily, the day-blooming Nymphaea nouchali, native to southern and eastern Asia, Borneo, the Philippines, Sri Lanka and Australia.
3. A Vedic measure of how far an ox cart can travel in a day, some eight to ten miles.
4. The ‘rose’ of Sharon in the Song of Songs, and the blossoming desert ‘rose’ of Isaiah 35: 1, were supplied by later translators as neither botanists nor biblical scholars can agree on the flower intended by the original Hebrew, ‘habasselet’.
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