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Plate 1 An iris with three upright petals and three falling petals

Iris

The iris meant "message" in the flower dictionaries, after Iris, the rainbow messenger of the Greek gods. Sarah Josepha Hale gave it "my compliments" instead, and the German iris, the fleur-de-lis, meant "flame".

The language of flowers. Also called fleur-de-lis flower, iris meaning.

Meaning

Charlotte de La Tour pairs the iris with Message. There are more than thirty kinds, she writes, and their rainbow colours earned them the name of the messenger of the gods, who brought only good news. The English version of her book translates it directly. Her German iris, called flambe, means Flamme. Sarah Josepha Hale's Flora's Interpreter (Boston, 1832) gives the iris, "flower de luce", as "my compliments". Kate Greenaway's Language of Flowers (1884) gives the iris "message", the German iris "flame", the fleur-de-lis "flame, I burn" and the fleur-de-luce "fire". The dictionaries are a finished fashion, not a living tradition.

Origin and history

Richard Folkard's Plant Lore, Legends, and Lyrics (1884) tells the Greek side. The flower takes its name from Iris, messenger of the gods and attendant of Juno, goddess of the rainbow. The Greeks planted irises on graves, Folkard suggests because Iris was believed to lead the souls of dead women to their rest.

The iris and the fleur-de-lis

Folkard and Elizabeth Haig both identify the French royal fleur-de-lis with the iris. Folkard gives the tradition: Louis VII took the flower as his device in 1137 after a dream, it became the Fleur de Louis, then Fleur de Luce, then Fleur de Lys, "although it has no affinity to the Lily". Haig's study of flowers in religious painting (1913) says that in France the iris has always been identified with the fleur-de-lys.

The Virgin's other lily

Haig calls the iris the only rival to the white Lily as the flower of the Virgin Mary, though it is not a lily. It first appears as a religious symbol in early Flemish painting, beside or in place of the white lily.

See also

Lily, Red rose, White rose, Yellow rose, Pink rose, Lily.

Sources

  1. Le Langage des fleurs (Charlotte de La Tour, 13th edition), Charlotte de La Tour, Le Langage des fleurs, treizième édition augmentée (Paris: Garnier frères, [1856]); first published 1819, Cornell University Library, via the Internet Archive, Dictionnaire, “Message”, “Flamme”
  2. Flora's Interpreter (Sarah Josepha Hale, 1832), Sarah Josepha Hale, Flora's Interpreter, or the American Book of Flowers and Sentiments (Boston: Marsh, Capen and Lyon, 1832), Boston Public Library, via the Internet Archive, Iris (Flower de Luce)
  3. Language of Flowers, illustrated by Kate Greenaway, 1884, George Routledge and Sons (Project Gutenberg edition), Iris; Fleur-de-Lis
  4. Plant Lore, Legends, and Lyrics (Richard Folkard, 1884), Richard Folkard, Plant Lore, Legends, and Lyrics (London: Sampson Low, 1884), Project Gutenberg, Iris
  5. The Floral Symbolism of the Great Masters (Elizabeth Haig, 1913), Elizabeth Haig, The Floral Symbolism of the Great Masters (London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner, 1913), Project Gutenberg, The Iris
  6. The Language of Flowers, with Illustrative Poetry, by Frederic Shoberl, seventh edition, 1840, Saunders & Otley, London (Internet Archive, Cornell University Library copy), Dictionary, “Message”

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Last reviewed September 29, 2026 by Rory Hansen. How we research

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