☙ Lily of the valley

Convallaria majalis L. (1753).WFO

Period English: lily of the valley.

Period French: muguet m.; lis des vallées m.;CLT LB muguet-de-bois m.; BD muguet de mai m.CLT

Sentiments:

🏶︎ Retour du bonheurReturn of happiness ◼︎ (1819-1825). CLT LA-M

 Return of happiness ▲︎◆︎ (1825-1884); HP:FE TTA FS CHW TM FSO LH HGA:OT HGA:LPF GAL RT:LOF JS KG

 Happiness ◆︎ (1839); ESP

🏶︎ Modesty and simplicity ▲︎ (1829); DLD

🏶︎ Delicacy ▲︎ (1832-1871); EWW JS

🏶︎ Delicate simplicity ▲︎ (1832-1845); SJH S&K

🏶︎ Humility ▲︎ (1834); O&B

🏶︎ Unconscious sweetness ▲︎ (1867); GAL

Region:

Native: Caucasus; Kazakhstan; Irkutsk; Krasnoyarsk; Turkey; and throughout Europe.WFO Considered a native of England, Scotland and Wales, however HNE notes a lack of references in Elizabethian English and prior literature suggest it was not well-distributed in England at the time, supported by writings from naturalists of the period such as Turner.

Introduced: Ireland; north-eastern America; and disparate American and Canadian states such as Ontario; Washington; Utah; and Saskatchewan.WFO

Seasonality: Famously appears as one of the first flowers of spring in May. Deciduous perennial, flowers spring, fruits in autumn.

Period Colours: TBC.

Heraldry: TBC.

Cited Verse:

❧ 'Lochleven: A Poem', ◆︎ (Scot.) Michael Bruce, Poems on Several Occasions (1770) Edinburgh, J. Robertson. pp.63-101; CHW

 ('No flower amid the garden fairer grows' - inevitably attributed to Keats, however I have confirmed this is the source)

❧ 'Ode to Health', attr. H. (F. Offley?), ◆︎ The New Lady's Magazine; Or, Polite and Entertaining Companion for the Fair Sex: Entirely Devoted to Their Use and Amusement, Vol. 5 (1790) p.265; HP:FE

❧ 'The Loves of the Plants', ◆︎ Erasmus Darwin, The Botanic Garden (1791) London: J. Johnson. Read Here; EWW

❧ 'The Sensitive Plant', ◆︎ Percy Bysshe Shelley, Prometheus Unbound; a lyrical drama in four acts with other poems (1820) pp.157-173 Read Here; CHW

❧ 'Flowers', attr. ◆︎ Bernard Barton - this poem allegedly published elsewhere, but the first record I can find of it is in article 'Time's Telescope for 1824', published in The London Literary Gazette, and Journal of The Belles Lettres, Arts, Sciences, &c. No.357, 22 November (1823) pp.741-742. HP:FE

Source EWW cites Shakespeare, Henry VIII 3.1.168-170, but HNE notes (see 'Region') it is unlikely Shakespeare is here referring to the lily of the valley, and rather the white lily.

Other Verse:

❧ 'The Lily of the Vale', ◆︎ Felicia Dorothea Hemans, Poems (1808) p.27;

❧ 'Canto I - Aspley Wood', stanzas LXIV-LXVI, ◆︎ Jeremiah Holmes Wiffen, Aonian Hours, a Poem, in Two Cantos, with other Poems (1819) pp.39-40.