180 Rhodora [OCTOBER 
THE HISTORY OF THE POPULAR NAME “FLOWER DE 
LUCE” OR “FLEUR DE LIS" OF THE IRIS. 
Taro. Horw. 
WHILE reading some descriptions of American wild flowers, pub- 
lished in the National Geographic Magazine (May, 1915), I came 
across some statements about the meaning of the popular name " fleur 
de lis” for the Iris, which was said to be a corruption of "fleur de 
Louis," the flower of Louis!" — Moreover it was stated that the 
iris, or blue flag, is really meant when one speaks of the lily of France. 
Having had the opportunity recently to.study the history of vari- 
ous old plant-names, I have found some notes relative to the real 
meaning of a name, that has always puzzled me, namely the " flower 
de luce" applied to the genus Iris by several of our leading botanisst, 
Gray, Torrey, Nuttall and others. It is true that the name “fleur de 
lis” is also, and not infrequently, applied to this plant, but as will be 
demonstrated in the following, “lis” is not a corruption of “Louis,” 
and the word “luce,” although in itself a corruption, is nearer than 
any of the others to give us the explanation. 
The old French name for the lily (Lilium) is “lys’’!; the more 
modern is *lis"; *fleur de lis" refers to the flower in the French 
coat of arms, and this emblem is believed to date back to Louis VII. 
However, the history of heraldry tells us that the actual figure, once 
explained as representing a lily-flower, does suggest interpretations of 
very different nature. For instance, the figure resembles the points 
of a spear; furthermore the figure has been explained as representing 
a bee, judging from the designs, poorly carved on the old tombstones. 
Last not least, the figure has been considered to represent the flower 
of the yellow iris of Europe, Iris Pseudacorus, of which the popular 
name, many years ago, was "fleur de Lys." 
For many centuries the yellow Iris is known to have grown in 
abundance in Flanders on the shores of the river Lys, and the popular 
name dates back to the year 486, when the Francs left Flanders, 
1Compare: Cannart-d'Hamale: Essai d'une histoire littéraire des Lis. (La Belgique 
horticole Vol. 1. Lidge 1851, p. 199.) 
