August  6,  1903. 
JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER, 
129 
gather  the  plant,  when  he  passed  masses  of  it,  while  going 
up  a  rocky  path.  He  chose  it  for  his  emblem  because  the 
Broom  held  on  bravely  in  the  midst  of  difficulties,  of  which 
he  had  to  encounter  many.  A  very  good  meaning,  but  it 
seems  to  have  been  also  regarded  as  a  token  of  humility. 
It  was  worn  by  the  Plantagenets  till  the  “  Hunchback 
Richard”  ended  that  race.  In  1234,  Louis  IX.  of  France 
instituted  an  order  of  knighthood,  the  members  of  which 
wore  a  chain  of  Broom  flowers  entwined  with  white  Lilies. 
This  is  significant,  if  trustworthy,  indicating  that  the  Lily 
was  even  then  adopted  as  a  symbolic  flower  by  the  French. 
Thei’e  is  no  doubt  that  the  Hawthorn  or  Maybush  was 
the  Tudor  emblem,  and  we  all  know  the  story  that  this  arose 
from  tlie  discovery  of  a  crown  in  this  bush,  which  wf  s 
brought  to  Henry  VII.  on  Bosworth  Field.  One  feels  a 
Lily?  There  does  seem  good  evidence  that  the  earlier 
“  Lily  ”  was  a  species  of  Iris,  the  purple  flower,  in  fact; 
it  is  quite  recognisable  on  ancient  devices  by  the  drooping 
form  of  the  petals.  Old  English  authors  allude  to  the 
Fleur-de-Luce  as  distinct  from  the  Lily,  yet  Shakespeare 
speaks  of  it  as  a  Lily,  and  Chaucer,  in  a  line  of  his  long 
before,  implies  that  it  was  one.  Again,  some  declare  that 
the  Crusaders  brought  from  Palestine  golden  Lilies,  which 
were  placed  upon  their  banners,  and  many  references  occur 
to  the  golden  hue  of  the  symbolic  flowmr  of  France.  Cer¬ 
tainly,  when  a  Lily  became  the  special  flower  of  the  House 
of  Bourbon  it  was  some  white  species.  It  must  have  been 
white  when  the  Dauphin  was  spoken  of  as  the  “  Lily  of 
France.”  Tasso,  in  his  time,  called  Frenchmen  the  “Golden 
Lilies.”  During  the  unscientific  ages  we  could  not  expect 
A  Tasmanian  Show;  The  Fruit  Section. 
certain  amount  of  suspicion  about  this  story,  and  the  Haw¬ 
thorn.  a  species  of  varied  significance,  might  have  been 
chosen  for  other  reasons.  Thus,  from  the  tradition  that 
Christ’s  crown  of  thorns  was  made  of  its  twigs,  arose  a 
belief  that  they  afforded  protection  from  evil  spirits,  and  the 
Greek  brides  wore  Hawthorn  bloom  as  a  symbol  of  hope. 
When  in  exile,  Henry  of  Lancaster  is  said  to  have  told  his 
adherents  to  make  the  Forget-me-not  their  badge  a  token  of 
remembrance,  and  hope  too. 
Pi'obably  the  longfest  and  warmest  controversy  about  a 
badge  or  symbol  has  been  that  arising  from  the  Lily  of 
France,  nor  have  the  disputers  succeeded  in  clearing  up  the 
subject  much.  This,  however,  is  decided,  that  Fleuf-de-Lys 
came  from  Fleur-de-Luce,  which  is  really  Fleur-de-Louis, 
after  Louis  VII.,  who  made  very  conspicuous  use  of  it  on 
banners,  though  some  assert  the  devices  can  be  traced  back 
to  Clovis  I.  in  the  fifth  century.  But  what  was  the  so-called 
modern  accuracy.  Two  Italian  parties,  the  Guelphs  and 
the  Gibellines,*  took  for  their  tokens  red  and  white  Lilies, 
and  an  orange  Lily  was  the  original  symbol  of  the  Princes 
of  Orange. 
Archdeacon  Hare  tried  to  prove  that  the  Sweet  William 
was  a  corruption  of  Saint  William,  the  flower  being  dedi¬ 
cated  to  that  saint,  whose  anniversary  falls  on  June  25,  and 
suggested  that  others  of  the  “  sweets  ”  might  be  “  saints,” 
too.  But  the  Rev.  H.  Friend  thinks  the  French  name  of 
CEillet  was  turned  into  “  Willy,”  and  the  flower  got  associ¬ 
ated  with  some  William  or  other.  Gerard  speaks  of  the 
plant  as  a  common  garden  flower  in  1568.  It  would  be 
pleasant  to  believe  the  flower  was  named  after  William 
Shakespeare,  surely  the  sweetest  of  all  Williams,  but  we 
have  no  evidence  of  that.  Others  have  suggested  William 
of  Aquitaine,  the  soldier  monk,  who  was  famous  iu  his 
day  tlu’oughout  South  Europe.  It  is  likely  the  original 
