| Additional Notes: Lily pollen can perminately
stain clothing. Use gloves when removing anthers. If pollen should get on
flower petals, gently brush it off with a chenille stem. If pollen should get on
clothing, immediately lift it of by gently touching the pollen with sticky tape. In the past, various flowers were used to prepare remedies in
popular medicine, some served as lucky charms, while others were thought to be capable of
averting the evil eye. In another historical account we read that people were interested
in lilies for their anti-toxic powers and their capacity of curing depressions. In Europe,
too, lilies were used as a remedy against a wide range of diseases and ailments right up
to the beginning of the last century.
However, just as today, people in the past valued the lily
for its outstanding beauty as well as its usefulness.
A lily has adorned the coat of arms of the kings of France
since 1179. King Chlodwig I allegedly received this 'fleur de lys', as it is called in
heraldic language, from an angel. But in actual fact his flower wasn't a lily, as the name
implies, but an iris. Via Louis XI the motif made its way to the coat of arms of the
Medici family, and from there on to the arms of Florence and Tuscany. Interestingly, only
the Florentine 'fleur de lys' has stamens like a lily.
Like irises, and tulips, lilies grow from bulbs. So it's
not unlikely that the Dutch botanist Carolus Clusius, who planted the first tulip bulb in
the Hortus Botanicus of Leiden, also successfully cultivated the first lily.
In Greek poetry, the lily stood for tenderness. It was also
referred to as the voice of cicadas or of the muses. There is a Greek myth that tells us
how the lily was born from the milk of the goddess Hera. The lily still symbolises pure,
virginal love in the Christian world.
The white lily is the prima donna in the world of lilies, a
symbol of purity and love on the one hand, and royalty on the other, with powers to heal
the sick. In today's permissive 'republican' commercially-driven society these virtues may
have lost some of their former significance, but in a new millennium, we may once again
place our hope in the ideals of lilies. |
