"Janet Baraclough.." wrote in message
...
The message
from Kay Easton contains these words:

In article , Brian
writes

I would suspect that wrong names for the Gillyflower have only been
given when being questioned. This has been its name since Gaelic times
and
is still in use.

I don't know how far back the usage of gillyflower for pink goes, but a
long time back. And it seems more common than its usage for wallflower.

Both Chaucer and Shakespeare refer to gillyflowers iirc. 18 months
after our move I still haven't unpacked the books (scream; bookshelf
maker promised for June)..so I can't look up the references to see which
plant they meant :-)

Janet.

Welcome back from the US group. You must have an iron will to bother with
some of the stupid, bigoted Americans!
The history of the Gillyflower usage was covered in my posting on the 29th
at 13.to Kay. Practically everything from Cloves to Apples before settled
on Wallflower.
Regards Brian.