THE FLOWER OF BRISTOWE. 
7 
From what earlier writers state, it is clear that the name of 
“Flower of Malta” had an additional association. The petals 
of the Lychnis are forked at the ends, and so arranged in the 
flower as to appear to the casual observer as an exact represen- 
tation of the familiar Cross of Malta, the badge worn by the 
Knight Hospitallers and the Knight Templars. In reality the 
blossom is composed of five petals. There is nothing, however, 
in all this to tell us why, at the end of the i6th century, when 
Gerard published his Herball, the plant known as Lychnis 
Chalcedonica, called in the English tongue Campion or Flower 
of Constantinople, was in addition named Nonesuch and Flower 
of Bristowe. 
Campion is a general name given to various species of Lychnis, 
and is thought to have its origin in the fact that the flowers were 
used in the chaplets with which the champions at the public games 
were crowned. Chalcedonica and Flower of Constantinople 
suggest that the plant might have been introduced into England 
from Constantinople or from the Asia Minor town of Chalcedon, 
although we know from all books on gardening that this Lychnis 
is a native of Russia. Hence we see that in England, just as 
amongst the Continental people, it was not the place of its origin 
that impressed the popular mind in those times, but the name of 
the seaports whence it was known to be brought into England. 
The Crusades being nearly forgotten as the centuries rolled on, 
we find that in England the plant takes on names derived from 
a different source, while still retaining those associated with its 
Eastern origin, and it is interesting to try and trace out this 
change to Nonesuch and Flower of Bristowe. 
The etymological meaning of Nonesuch is “a thing that has 
no equal,” is “ unrivalled,” “ incomparable,” and in this case must 
refer to the colour of the flower. The absence of scarlet amongst 
English wild flowers is very noticeable, there being but three — 
the scarlet pimpernel, the poppy, and the pheasant’s-eye Adonis 
— so that the brilliancy of the Scarlet Lychnis struck the English 
people, and they regarded it as incomparable and nonesuch. 
This still leaves unexplained whence came the popular name of 
Flower of Bristowe. Working from analogy we can only think 
that the plant must have been introduced during the i6th century 
freely and repeatedly into English gardens through the great 
port of Bristol, then the second trading place in the kingdom. 
That being so, it is clear that something about the plant — I have 
suggested it was its colour — made a great impression on the 
popular imagination, and caused it to be commonly and persistently 
regarded as the Flower of Bristowe, whereas other plants imported 
through the different trading centres of England acquired no such 
lasting fame. 
