crown-imperial love

Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A liliaceous garden-plant, Fritillaria imperialis, cultivated for its beautiful flowers. Also called crown-thistle.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Bot.) A spring-blooming plant (Fritillaria imperialis) of the Lily family, having at the top of the stalk a cluster of pendent bell-shaped flowers surmounted with a tuft of green leaves.

Etymologies

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Examples

  • Then take a considerable number of bulbs of the crown-imperial, the narcissus, the hyacinth, the tulip, the crocus, and others; let the leaves of each have sprouted to about an inch, more or less according to the size of the bulb; put all these, pretty promiscuously, but pretty thickly, on the top of the box.

    Highways & Byways in Sussex E.V. Lucas

  • It was not the simplicity of the hedge-row any more than of the hothouse; it was rather that of some classic flower, lavender or crown-imperial, growing from an ancient stock in some dignified, long-tended garden.

    The Street Called Straight Basil King 1893

  • It was thus a simplicity closely allied to sturdiness -- the inner sturdiness not inconsistent with an outward semblance of fragility -- the tenacity of strength by which the lavender scents the summer and the crown-imperial adorns the spring, after the severest snows.

    The Street Called Straight Basil King 1893

  • The striped Jalappa, the crested Sedum, the fasciated crown-imperial, white strawberries, red gooseberries and many others were known to Munting.

    Species and Varieties, Their Origin by Mutation Hugo de Vries 1891

  • The two younger princesses, the flower crown-imperial.

    Letters of Horace Walpole 01 Walpole, Horace 1890

  • Though the old garden had many fragrant leaves and flowers, their delicate perfume was sometimes fairly deadened by an almost mephitic aroma that came from an ancient blossom, a favorite in Shakespeare's day -- the jewelled bell of the noxious crown-imperial.

    Home Life in Colonial Days Alice Morse Earle 1881

  • A bird of our own country called a willow-wren (Motacilla) runs up the stem of the crown-imperial (Frittillaria coronalis) and sips the pendulous drops within its petals.

    The Botanic Garden A Poem in Two Parts. Part 1: the Economy of Vegetation Erasmus Darwin 1766

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