Sakura Legends

Sakura is the national flower of Japan, where it originated. The main characteristic of the sakura is that when it falls, it does so at once. It symbolizes the militarism and Samurai spirit of the Japanese. There is no scent in sakuras grown in Korea and the US. But, in Japan, people praise the scent of the sakura and it is often spoken of in poems.

To honor its beauty, and short life span, the Japanese celebrate its arrival with a yearly festival. Friends gather under the trees to enjoy ~sake~ (rice wine), sing songs, and celebrate the coming of spring. It is used in wedding ceremonies because the Japanese love to enjoy the sakura scent during happy occasions. Most events, such as an entrance ceremony or the starting of a company which relates with ~the start of life~ are held during ~the month of blooming sakura~ in April.

There is an expression that, ~A flower is a Sakura, a person is a Samurai.~ It means that when the Samurai faces danger, he is not afraid of death, because, like a sakura, he will shrivel and fall at once, without hesitation. To the Japanese, this tree represents not only ascetic beauty, but also transience melancholy, and the honor of graceful resignation. Many references to the sakura are found in Japanese poetry and literature. These trees have been offered by Japan as symbols of peace to the countries of the world. sakura now adorn the banks of the Potomac river, in Washington DC, and the remains of the Berlin wall.

Sakura season is thus a highly visible sign of spring, the beauty of nature, renewal of life, and first love...but can also represent the transiency and fragility of beauty, life, and love. Since the meanings are highly romantic, the sakura motif is especially common in media aimed to the shoujo audience.

Japanese mythology often also connects sakura with death; a legend goes that originally, the flowers of the tree were white; after a body was buried beneath it, the petals turned pink. Anime will sometimes take this further, putting a body beneath a cherry blossom and turning the petals a deep red. (The fact that they last, at most, two weeks is a more mundane contribution to the symbolism.)

Lotus Flowers Legends

The lotus flower appeared in legends originating from ancient Egypt. It played an important part in ancient Egyptian religion. The pure white lotus flower, the only plant to fruit and flower simultaneously, emerges from the depths of the muddy swamp. Growing from the mud at the bottom of ponds and streams, the exquisite Lotus flower rises above the water and is usually white or pink with 15 or more oval, spreading petals, and a peculiar, flat seedcase at its center.
Sesen A Lotus Flower. This is a symbol of the sun, of creation and rebirth. Because at night the flower closes and sinks underwater,

at dawn it rises and opens again. According to one creation myth it was a giant lotus which first rose out of the watery chaos at the beginning of time.
From this giant lotus the sun itself rose on the first day. A symbol of Upper Egypt .The lotus flower played a prominent role in the version of the creation story that originated in Heliopolis. Before the universe came into being, there was an infinite ocean of inert water which constituted

the primeval being named Nun. Out of Nun emerged a lotus flower, together with a single mound of dry land. The lotus blossoms opened, and out stepped the self-created sun god, Atum, as a child. A slightly different version of the creation story originated in Hermopolis. In that version, the sun god who formed himself from the chaos of Nun emerged from the lotus petals as Ra. The lotus is a flower which opens and closes each day. His history went on to say that the petals of the lotus blossom enfolded him when he returned to it each night.

The lotus flower has been featured extensively throughout the art of ancient Egypt. In various works of art, you may see it held in the hand of a god or human, serving as a border to outline a section of the artwork, unfolding to reveal various gods or humans, and many other depictions. The ancient Egyptians from the 4th dynasty greatly valued the sacred lotus, in religious ceremonies and funerals. The ancient Egyptians developed the art

of counting to a high degree, but their system of numeration was very crude. For example, the number 1,000 was symbolized by a picture of a lotus flower, and the number 2,000 was symbolized by a picture of two lotus flowers growing out of a bush

Iris Legends

Among the duties of the Greek Goddess Iris was that of leading the souls of dead women to the Elysian Fields. In token of that faith the Greeks planted purple Iris on the graves of women. Iris was the messenger of the gods and the personification of the Rainbow. The Greek symbolism for the iris comes down to us by word of mouth in the form of a myth that was old in Homer's day.

Between three and four thousand years ago an artist was commissioned (more likely commanded) to model in stucco on one of the walls of the great Minoan palace at Knossos a representation of the priest-king. When he finished the figure of the youth in low relief he painted around it a background of many iris.

A comparatively short time after Iris bloomed on Minoan walls it appeared sculptured in stone at Karnak in Egypt. Thutmosis III (1504-1450 b.c.) celebrated the conquest of a large slice of Asia Minor by having a garden built near one of his palaces to display some of the plants he had brought back from his campaign. He felt a number of these seemed exotic enough to be carved into stone on the great wall of the temple of Anon.

Leaping forward through time we know that the Fleur-de-lis as a conventional form long predated its association with the Kings of France. There are various legends of how the iris came to represent the French monarchy but most center around two historical incidents separated in time by six hundred years. Clovis who in 496 A.D. is said to have abandoned the three toads on his banner in favor of the fleur-de-lis. His Christian Queen Clotilda, had long sought to convert her heathen husband but he always ignored her plea. Then faced with a formidable army of Alamanni, the Germanic tribe invading his kingdom, he told his wife that if he won the coming battle he would admit her God was strongest and be baptized. He did win and the toads whose symbolism would be most interesting to know disappeared.

The second incident occurred in 1147. Louis VII of France had a dream that convinced him to adopt the purple iris as his device shortly before setting out for his ill-fated crusade. Thus the fleur-de-lis became the symbol on the banner of France for the next six hundred years. Or twelve hundred years if we take it from the time of Clovis that the iris became the symbol for a great nation.

The iris was so powerful a symbol of the French kings that the Revolutionaries in 1789 set out to totally obliterate it the symbol of the hated monarchy. It was chipped off buildings and torn from draperies. Men were guillotined for wearing a fleur-de-lis on their clothes or as jewelry. The revolution succeeded and the symbol of the fleur-de-lis is only a memory now and is considered merely a conventionalized ornament or decoration.

Cultivated by the Egyptians and according to Dioscorides both the Greeks and the Romans used the rhizomes for medicinal purposes and in perfumery. Pliny the Elder wrote of Iris cultivation and noted that the choicest varieties came from Silistria and Pamphylia. In the dark ages Charlemagne noted the culture of Iris in France and the Arabs grew them in Moorish Spain. The Iris bloom is the emblem of Florence, Italy. In nineteenth century Italy, the production of dried Iris rhizomes was almost a major industry. Three people could plant about 5,000 in one day. Three years later the rhizomes were harvested, skinned and dried in the sun. They were of major value to the Perfume industry. A large portion were used by well-known distillers in Florence but about 10,000 tons in 1876 were exported to other countries, including the United States.

Although Iris were mainly prized for the perfume made as described above they were also of major importance as medicine for the treatment of illness. The rhisotomi (root diggers) were the druggists of primitive Greece and even its doctors. Pliny stated that iris should be gathered only by those in a state of chastity.

During the Dark Ages monasteries treasured the few copies of manuscripts that were swept up by scholars and carried off to Constantinople when thousands of such books were destroyed with the fall of Rome. One of these continued in use until modern times. It was i. germanica. But it has lost its medical importance and iris now is relegated to nothing more than flavoring for toothpaste. Our own native iris was used for a long time for the treatment of dropsy an syphilis.

In Germany orris root which is made from iris used to be suspended in beer barrels to keep the beer from going stale and in France it was hung in wine casks to enrich the bouquet of the wine. In England orris root was used to give the peculiar flavor to artificial brandies made there. In Russia, in czarist days orris root flavored a soft drink that was made with honey and ginger and sold on the streets.

From earliest times perfumes were used as an offering to the gods. Orris root when thrown on a fire gave off a most pleasant scent. And until the synthetic ionome was discovered a little more than 80 years ago all violet scented powders and perfumes were distilled from iris. It also had the quality of being able to strengthen the odors of other perfumed substances thus was valuable as a fixative.

For a long time orris root was responsible for making social interaction bearable. It was used as a perfume for linen and is mentioned in 1480 in the wardrobe accounts of Edward IV. Several pieces of dried orris root strung on a string would be plunged into the boiling water with the clothes. "Swete cloth" if so achieved could only have been linen. In those times people wore wool or if they were important silk,satin. or velvet. There were no dry cleaners then so "Swete cloth" underneath the clothes amd a great deal of perfume on top was the best to be done, since bathing was considered dangerous. Orris root also was important to the new high hair fashions that at one time towered two feet off the ladies foreheads. They were powered with orris root which was added as a perfume to flour or starch.. One of the complaints of the hungry peasants in France was that so much of the flour they needed for food went to dress the hair of the nobility.

The French revolution brought an end to the powered hair fashion not only in France but all over Europe. Modern chemistry has eliminated the need for iris as a medicinal drug and the coming of synthetics has replaced its necessity for perfumes and cosmetics. Now it is simply an ornament in our gardens. But for over a thousand years it served mankind first as a religious symbol and than as the ultimate frivolity.

The fleur-de-lys is the emblem for the city of New Orleans.

Dahlia Legends

The story of any flower in remote antiquity can sometimes be reconstructed by the obviously primitive bits of magic and myth. That is true as far as Europe is concerned but concerning the Dahlia, it did not originate in Europe. It came from Mexico and was well known by the Aztecs. An Aztec herbal written in Latin just sixty years after the coming of Columbus was brought to light in 1929. An advanced type of culture had existed  in Mexico, but its wealth of of written records were destroyed in the interest of bringing Christianity to the heathen. So the discovery of an Aztec Herbal was a piece of incredible luck for the students of the history of Medicine and also for botanists. Out of the remote Mexican we find that the Aztecs used dahlias as a treatment for epilepsy.

The dahlia was late in coming to Europe. By the time it arrived the "curious " men of the sixteenth and seventeenth century were long gone and scientific specialists had taken over. They looked at the dahlia as a possible source of food because a disease in the early 1840`s had destroyed the French potato crop. However after tasting the dahlia they gave up on that idea and decided just to grow it for its beauty.

Modern specialists turned to the dahlia for medical reasons and this time it was not in vain. In the days before insulin was discovered diabetics were often given a substance called Atlantic starch or diabetic sugar made from dahlia tubers. The medicine they yield is no longer fed to diabetics, but it is useful in making clinical tests for the functioning of the liver while inulin, another chemical derived from dahlia tubers, is used in the same way to test the kidneys.

There is also a sweet story from the eighteenth century concerning love and dahlias.
Sir Godfrey Webster was living in Florence with his wife when young Lord Holland came to town. Lady Webster took off with Lord Holland and in 1796 their first son was born. A year later old Sir Godfrey divorced her and she and Lord Holland were able to marry. The love affair between the lad of twenty and the girl of twenty-three blossomed into a long and happy marriage. And after they had been together some twenty years he wrote for her a little poem.

Between 1800 and 1805 the Hollands lived in France and in Spain where Lady Holland first saw dahlias that had reached Spain about 15 years before. She sent some home and it is on the strength of that shipment that she is given credit for the introduction of the dahlia into England.

Daisy Legends

There is a charming story about Rhiwallon of Myddvai who was the son of a poor cowherd and the Lady of Llyn-y-Van-Vach. This local lady of the Lake was a beautiful girl who after various appearances on and disappearances into, the lake that was her home, abandoned it and settled down with her cowherd husband to whom she brought great wealth. Her father, however had stipulated that she would have to return to the lake if her husband struck her without anger three times. The husband was very careful but over a period of years, a playful slap with the gloves and two other equally playful gestures finally cost him his wife. She had in the meantime bore him three sons of whom Rhiwallon was the eldest. The boys had been told of their mother and used to wander by the lake in hopes of seeing her. One day she appeared to Rhiwallon and told him that he was destined to benefit mankind by relieving pain and curing illness. She pointed out the various herbs to him and explained their healing virtues. That son became a

physician to the Lord of the manor,Rhys. Rhyss gave him a castle called Myddvai and he traveled forth all over the country side curing people and building up a reputation. He was one of the few earlier physicians who advised cleanliness as a good way to avoid illness.It was most likely his bias in favor of cleanliness that helped account for his many successes. His son followed him in the profession and on May 12,1842, Rice Williams M.D., died at the age of eighty-four, the last, although not the least eminent of physicians descended from the mysterious Lady of Llyn-yu-Van-Vach. Six hundred years of medical practice in one family. An extraordinary record. Useful to the physicians of Myddvai, the daisy had another virtue of great importance to them. It could tell if a patient would live or die. "

Take the flower of the daisy and pound it well with wine and give it to the patient to drink: if he vomits he will die of the disease,if not, he will live and this has been proven."
Bess of Harwick after being widowed three times married the Earl of Shrewsbury and the pair served for years as the jailers of Mary, Queen of Scots. Gilbert Talbot, the eldest son of the earl by his first wife married his stepmother's daughter Mary, and they were the parents of the Countess of Kent. Like all the great ladies of her time, the countess knew about domestic medicine and practiced it in her home and went on to invent medicines as well. The Countess of Kents powder, good against all

malignant and pestilent Diseases: French Pox, Small Pox, Measles and Plague added the common daisy to her formula which included expensive drugs such as pearls, gold,coral, jet, and other ingredients beyond the means of common sufferers. Her other specialty was the treatment for sore eyes and "Web over the Eye". Daisies have been used in heraldry. Marguerite, the French word for daisy, is derived from a Greek word meaning "pearl". Francis I called his sister Marguerite of Marguerites and the lady used the daisy as her device, So did Margaret of Anjou the wife of Henry IV and Margaret Beaufort, mother of Henry VII. St. Louis is said to have had a daisy engraved on a ring he wore. Along with it was a fleur-de-lis and a crucifix. This ring, the king claimed, represented all he held most dear: religion, France and his wife, Margurite.
There is an old English saying that spring has not come until you can set your foot on twelve daises. If you dream of daisies in the spring or summer that is good but if in the fall or winter it is bad luck. According to an old Celtic legend, the spirits of children who died in childbirth scattered daisies on the earth to cheer their sorrowing parents.

Lily Legends

The lily was dedicated to the goddess Hera, the wife of Zeus. Legend has it that when Zeus fathered Hercules with the mortal woman Alceme,he wished his son to partake more fully of divinity. To this end he had the baby brought to Hera after he drugged her to sleep. He had the baby placed at her breast and Hercules nursed. Hera awoke in horrified surprise and flung the baby from her. Some of her milk gushed across the heavens and formed the milky way. A few drops fell to earth and from those drops sprang the first lilies.

Roman legend has it that when Venus rose from the sea-foam she saw a lily and she became filled with jealousenvy at the whiteness and beauty of it.
Seeing it as a rival to her own beauty she caused a huge and monstrous pistil to spring from the lily's snow-white center. This myth accounts for the the lily being associated with Venus and the Satyrs who are the personification of lustful ardor.Early representations of the lily were discovered in a villa in Amnisos,Crete, which dates from the Minoan Period, about 1580 B.C. The lily was the Minoan sacred flower, a special attribute of the Great Minoan Goddess Britomartis or Dictynna who had her origin in Neolithic times.

She maintained her supremacy in Crete until the mysterious cataclysm that befell Minoan civilization in the middle of the sixteenth century B.C. when her cult was gradually assimilated into the religion of the Greeks and she became the precursor of Greek Artemis.

Poppy Legends

It may have been as early as Neolithic times that man became aware of the potent qualities latent in the seed pod of the fragile poppy flower. Poppies have been found in Egyptian tombs dating back 3,000 years. There is even a prescription for poppy to be given to children to stop their crying. It was known to the Assyrians and the mythology of Greece. Ancient Greeks thought that poppies were a sign of fertility. Poppy seeds were thought to bring health and strength so Greek athletes were given mixtures of poppy seeds, honey, and wine.

Demeter,so the legend goes, created the poppy for the purpose of getting some sleep after the loss of her daughter Persephone. The twin brothers Hypnos and Thanatos (sleep and Death) were represented as crowned with poppies or carrying poppies in their hands. Obviously the Greeks were aware of the fact that a merciful sleep induced by opium could lead to death. Pliny gave in one breath a careful description of how to collect raw opium and in the next issued a warning that "taken in too large quantities is productive of sleep unto death even." Dioscorides said bluntly "being drunk too much...it kills."

It was introduced into England by the Romans. Their mythology linked the papaver plant to Somnus, the god of sleep. The Greeks followed a similar line, connecting it to Hymnus, the god of rest and oblivion. Christianity gave its symbolism a new twist. Carved into the benches of some medieval church pews it represented the belief that we rest in anticipation of the Last Day. Cynics used to add that it also represented the slumber 'begun when the priest did speak!' Perhaps this explains why carved poppies were not a feature of all medieval church pews.