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Plate 1 An orchid flower with a broad lip and five spreading petals

Orchid

"A belle" is the orchid's meaning in the English and American flower dictionaries. Charlotte de La Tour listed only the fly orchid, which she made "error", because it looks so like a bee that people are deceived.

The language of flowers. Also called orchid meaning.

Meaning

La Tour's orchid is the ophrys, whose flower resembles a honeybee so closely that people are often fooled; she gives it Erreur. The English version of her book translates it as "error" for the bee orchis. Sarah Josepha Hale's Flora's Interpreter (Boston, 1832) gives the orchis, "a genus of near 90 species", as "a belle", and Kate Greenaway's Language of Flowers (1884) agrees. Henrietta Dumont's Floral Offering (Philadelphia, 1851) has both: her chapter says "a belle" and describes the butterfly, spider, fly and bee orchids, while her dictionary gives the bee orchis "error". Brent Elliott, of the Royal Horticultural Society's Lindley Library, notes that the cattleya entered the lists only with John Ingram's Flora Symbolica (1869) and its successors, "a nod to the growing fashion for orchids"; an illustration in the Society's collections gives it as "mature charms".

Origin and history

Richard Folkard's Plant Lore, Legends, and Lyrics (1884) gives two older traditions. The Romans called the orchis Satyrion. In Cheshire the English Orchis mascula, whose leaves are spotted deep purple, was called Gethsemane, from the belief that the spots were stains of Christ's blood, the plant having grown at Calvary.

The orchid in China

In China the orchid has a living meaning of its own. The Smithsonian's National Museum of Asian Art writes that since the time of Confucius (551–479 BCE) the cymbidium orchid, lan, has been linked with principled gentlemen whose talent and integrity go unrecognised by those in power. The orchid became a subject of painting in its own right under the Song dynasty (960–1279), and after the Mongol conquest of 1279 the ink orchid carried strong overtones of loyalty to the fallen Song.

See also

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

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, “Erreur”
  2. The Language of Flowers: The Floral Offering, by Henrietta Dumont, 1851, H. C. Peck & Theo. Bliss, Philadelphia (Project Gutenberg edition), Orchis chapter; Dictionary of Flowers
  3. 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, Orchis
  4. Language of Flowers, illustrated by Kate Greenaway, 1884, George Routledge and Sons (Project Gutenberg edition), Orchis
  5. The Victorian Language of Flowers (Brent Elliott, 2013), Brent Elliott, "The Victorian language of flowers", Occasional Papers from the RHS Lindley Library 10: 3–94 (2013), Royal Horticultural Society, via the Internet Archive, p. 39
  6. The language of flowers: a lover’s code (RHS Libraries), Royal Horticultural Society
  7. Plant Lore, Legends, and Lyrics (Richard Folkard, 1884), Richard Folkard, Plant Lore, Legends, and Lyrics (London: Sampson Low, 1884), Project Gutenberg, Orchis
  8. The Orchid in Chinese Painting (National Museum of Asian Art), Smithsonian National Museum of Asian Art
  9. The Language of Flowers, with Illustrative Poetry, by Frederic Shoberl, seventh edition, 1840, Saunders & Otley, London (Internet Archive, Cornell University Library copy), Dictionary, “Error”

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

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