☙ Jambu

🜱 On the Abecedary: Most other florigraphy authors I have encountered, including some of the time, have assumed the 'abecedary' is a mistake - in usual parlance, an 'abecedary' was a written work composed of an entry for each letter of the Latin alphabet (imagine an 'ABC' book for children). The assumption is that, like the word 'poetry' originating from 'poesy', or a 'bouquet' (the two are synonymous in French), the abecedary arose from some confusion in translation and was copied between later incautious authors.

I am excited, therefore, to notice Delachénaye's identification of the jambu as her 'abécédaire', further noting in her entry that this is a colloquial name for the flower in French, arising from its petals seeming to have letter-like figures on them. I believe this is the source of the 'abecedary' of the English authors later on.

Of course, the criticism is otherwise fair - it's true that most authors appear to have copied from other sources, many with little discretion. Still, finding the identity of this flower has been a little victory in my research.