The Tapestries - Metropolitan Museum of Art

Some of the most beautiful flowers
in the last tapestry are illustrated
below. Included is the cuckoopint
( top left ) that Pliny claims can repel
"serpents, especially asps, or make
them so tipsy that they are found in a
state of torpor." It also "drives away
melancholy and makes people happy
in their hearts."
Different names were given the
English daisy ( lower left) during the
Middle Ages: in France it was called
paquerette, signifying the joy of
Easter, and in medieval Gelmany it
was Massliebe or measure of love,
suggesting that even then girls plucked
the petals saying, "He loves me, he
loves me not."
The Virgin Mary is often called the
"lily of chastity," and the sweetsmelling
Madonna lily ( top center )
is named especially for her. In the
secular domain the flower's whiteness
relates to the beloved's purity, its
beauty and fragrance to the sweetness
of love.
So delectable is the fruit of the
flowering wild strawberry plant
(lower center) that it was called"food
for the blessed," and, according to
cookbooks, strawberry tarts were a
favorite medieval dessert. Medicinally
the plant was thought to curb
the effects of cholera, "evils of the
spleen," and stomach disorders.
Below right: At the left in this
picture is a mass of red wallflowers.
They were used for curative pur-