flahr-names

[Peter A. McGraw]

I've always thought of "daffodil" as the word our family used and "jonquil"
as a synonym we just didn't happen to use.

But I'm actually writing about another word.  When I first became aware of
daffodils, which was when we moved to Oregon in the 50s, I was only aware
of two varieties of this general type of flower: the standard all-yellow
daffodil with (to adopt Snake's terminology) a standard-size "horn," and
another variety with white or near-white "rays" and a horn that was orange
and much smaller than that of the "standard" daffodil.  My Oregon relatives
(well, actually, my great-aunt, who had grown up in Oklahoma) called these
latter "butter-and-eggs."  That name has stuck with me, but I don't think
I've heard anyone else use it in years.  Is anybody else familiar with it?

Peter Mc.

--On Tuesday, June 19, 2001 8:13 AM -0400 "Dennis R. Preston"
<preston at PILOT.MSU.EDU> wrote:

> Snake,
>
> Actually, I am not in line with you at all. What I wrote (and I guess
> I wasn't clear about) was the botanical classification (in which, as
> you say, daffodils and jonquils are subsets of narcissus). For me
> personally, although buttercups don't belong to the same "branch,"
> the truth is that I have no dominating term although I recognize the
> group. For me "narcissuses" are "big" daffodils, and jonquils are
> another flower altogether (go figger!). Daffodils and narcissuses
> together are those big yaller and white early blooming critters, got
> long narrer green leaves, etc...
>
> dInIs
>
>> Dennis R. Preston wrote:
>>
>>>  Hardly. A buttercup is a crowfoot, and, botanically, daffodils and
>>>  jonquils are both narcissuses (or, for the high-falutin' narcissi,
>>>  not -ae).
>>>
>>>  But I know lots of green-thumbers who will regularly refer to some
>>>  plants as narcissuses and others (in contrast) as daffodils.
>>
>> Somehow it is ingrained in me that daffodils and jonquils are subsets of
>> narcissi. Any bulb with a yellow bloom that has both "rays" and a "horn"
>> (terminology of my own devising) is a narcissus. A narcissus whose bloom
>> is uniformly bright yellow is a daffodil. A narcissus whose bloom has
>> pale yellow "rays" and a darker/brighter yellow "horn" is a jonquil.
>>
>> And Dennis is in line with my thinking that a buttercup is a totally
>> different flower from narcissus/daffodil/jonquil.
>>
>>    Snake
>
> --
> Dennis R. Preston
> Department of Linguistics and Languages
> Michigan State University
> East Lansing MI 48824-1027 USA
> preston at pilot.msu.edu
> Office: (517)353-0740
> Fax: (517)432-2736



****************************************************************************
                               Peter A. McGraw
                   Linfield College   *   McMinnville, OR
                            pmcgraw at linfield.edu