Flower names

#18 -- That list looks very suspect to me. Modern name: Pear. Medieval name: Mary's fruitfulness." I can guarantee that Chaucer never asked Mme Chaucer "Toss me one of those mary's fruitfulnesses, will you, m'dear?"

And off the top of my head I can say that Daisy (which Chaucer wrote about under that name), Feverfew, Bryony, Mallow, Cowslip, Rue, Betony, Tansy, and of course Parsley, Sage, Rosemary, and Thyme are medieval. It could be that the other names are also recorded in old herbalists etc. but I bet that very few of them of were common.

Edited by: VinnyD

I went to the source of that list. Flowers of Our Lady Growing at The Cloisters It's not Medieval names per se; it's a list of old religious common names.
>This is a list of plants in the Bonnefont Cloister Garden at The Cloisters, Fort Tryon Park, New York City, which were devotionally named as symbols of the life, virtues and mysteries of the Blessed Virgin and her Divine Son in the oral traditions of the medieval countrysides, circulated by itinerant preachers, mendicant friars, wandering minstrels, roving players, pilgrims, merchants, missionaries and other travelers.

I still wish they had provided sources.