☙ Auricula

May produce contact allergen.

Primula auricula L. (1753). WFO BD HP:FE EWW SJH CHW

Period English: auricula; bear's ear; EWW.

Period French: oreille-d'ours f. ('bear's-ear'). BD

Period German: Aurikel f. JRV

Scientific Latin: In William Salmon's Botanologia, the English Herbal (1710), the scarlet auricula is named as 'Auricula Ursi Flore rubro sive Coccineo' (Lib. 1, p.912, item XXIV).

Sentiments:

🏶︎ On cherche Ă  vous sĂ©duireWe seek to seduce you ◼︎ (1811); BD

🏶︎ Painting ▲︎◆︎ (1825-1884); HP:FE TTA CHW TM FSO LH S&K HGA:OT HGA:LPF GAL JS* KG

🏶︎ Pride, elegance, beauty ▲︎ (1829); DLD

🏶︎ Wie wohl iĆżt mir in deiner NĂ€he!How comfortable I feel in your presence! ●︎ (c.1880). JRV

* Marked as British meaning.

Scarlet:

🏶︎ Avarice ▲︎◆︎ (1832-1884); EWW HGA:OT GAL JS* CMK KG

🏶︎ Pride ▲︎ (1832-1845); SJH S&K

🏶︎ You are a miser ▲︎ (1884); CMK

* Marked as British meaning.

Region:

Native: Europe, France to Bulgaria, Romania, Yugoslavia, south to Italy.WFO

Seasonality: Evergreen perennial flowering in spring.

Period Colours: TBA.

Heraldry: TBC.

Religious: TBC.

Cited Verse:

❧ 'Auriculas, enrich'd / with Ćżhining Meal o'er all their velvet Leaves;', 'Spring', ◆︎ (Scot.) James Thompson, The Seasons, London: A Millar in the Strand (1744) Vol.1, p.28, ll.534-535, Read here; HP:FE EWW

  This version of the quotation, given by our authors, comes from the 1744 version, 'With Additions and Corrections', cited above. The original version, published 1728, was phrased, 'Auriculas a tribe / Peculiar powder'd with a shining sand,', given here at ll.493-494 from the 1735 version.

❧ 'See / Where rayed in sparkling dust, and velvet pride, / Like brilliant stars arranged in splendid row, / The proud Auriculas their lustre show.', 'Kleist on Spring', Unknown (Attr. ●︎ Ewald Christian von Kliest), (at or pre-1820) see note; EWW SJH

  These lines are attributed to ●︎ Ewald Christian von Kliest, a German poet, under the name 'From Spring, by Kliest' or 'Lines on Spring, by Kliest'. Presumably this means Kliest's 1749 poem 'Der FrĂŒhling' (The Spring), but my colleague E., fluent in German, has assisted me in reviewing this poem in the German and together we have been unable to find any reference to auriculas within.

  The earliest rendering of these lines in English that I could find is in 'The Naturalist's Diary for June 1820', in Time's Telescope for 1820, edited by John Millard, London: Sherwood, Neely, and Jones, 20 Paternoster Row (1820) p.171, where it was attributed to Kliest. I can't say with any certainty, but I hypothesise that this translation became confused with Thompson's 'Spring', or perhaps a German translation of such, and back and forth, et cetera. Kliest's 'FrĂŒhling' being influenced by Thompson's 'Spring', the stretch isn't impossible, however I could not find any reference as before.

đŸœ± On sentiments: The through-line in the sentiments for auricula are their wide variety of colours in cultivation. DelachĂ©naye's sentiment of on cherche Ă  vous sĂ©duire, we seek to seduce you, refers to their attraction to amateur cultivators. Henry Phillips first gives them their prevailing sentiment of painting for this variety.

For the scarlet auricula, the sentiment of arvarice proves a challenge. I have found no explicit explanation for this sentiment, but suspect it is arrived at from the poetic allusion above for 'shining sand', 'sparkling dust'. I have also seen reference to scarlet auriculas being the hardest to achieve for enthusiasts, but I am afraid I've since lost the refrence.

A fun aside: auriculas require a very rich fertiliser, and while modern gardeners may use commercial blood-and-bone blends for this purpose, amateurs in the Victorian era used to lay fresh, bloody meat on the plants' roots! I wonder if this helped inform their reputation as hungry for praise and avaricious.


Abécédaire de Flore

◼︎ B. DelachĂ©naye, 1811


NOMS DES FLEURS
substituées aux syllabes formées de plusieurs lettres.

NOM DES FLEURS. MOTS ANALOGUES.
43. oreille d'ours. il s'Ă©veille, il sommeille.


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DESCRIPTION DES PLANTES
DE L’ABÉCÉDAIRE DE FLORE.

QUATRIÉME PLANCHE.


 43. Oreille-d'Ours, Primula Auricula, Lin. Toute basse que soit cette plante, elle a dĂ» se faire remarquer par les bouquets de jolies fleurs quelle donne au printems, et souvent encore en automne. Descendue de nos hautes montagnes dans les jardins, la culture l’y a perfectionnĂ©e: elle rĂ©compense les soins de l’Amateur qui la sĂšme par de nouvelles variĂ©tĂ©s, soit dans le nombie et le volume des fleurs, soit dans la richesse ou la disposition des couleurs nuancĂ©es de mille maniĂšres, et toujours veloutĂ©es. Ces charmantes fleurs sont placĂ©es en nombre Ă  l’extrĂ©mitĂ© d’une tige courte, et qui sort d une rosette de feuilles faites, Ă  ce qu’on a cru voir, en forme d’oreilles, quelquefois couvertes d’une poudre farineuse, quelquefois seulement bordĂ©es de poils courts. L’Oreille-d’Ours fait les dĂ©lices de l’Amateur qui la tient en pot et la place sur un thĂ©Ăątre Ă  l’ombre pour en jouir mieux et plus long-tems.


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EMBLÉMES TIRÉS DU RÈGNE VÉGÉTAL.


O.


Oreille-d'ours signifie on cherche à vous séduire.


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Cite this page (MLA 9th): Never Never. “Auricula.” Glossa Hortensia, 24 Feb. 2025, neverxnever.neocities.org/glossahortensia/primula_auricula. Accessed [DD Mon. YYYY].