2. The Book of Knowledge. 8. 3. Botany

The BOOK of KNOWLEDGE,
a novel by Alexandra Kryuchkova
in the “PLAYING ANOTHER REALITY” series

PART 2. ANOTHER REALITY

Day No. 8

CHAPTER 8.3. BOTANY

After not a little snack with the locals, Svetlana, Sasha and I were sitting on the shore of a huge lake surrounded by mountains.

“The people who can live here are so lucky!” I said thoughtfully.

“Alice, I still want you to tell me something about trees, or about flowers. You know all sorts of legends!”

“Daphne, let’s talk about flowers!”

“Flowers are all different. There are sunny and moony ones. Each flower is unique, like a human being.”

“What does sunny mean?”

“That’s how I feel them. Sunny ones somehow remind me of the Sun and are connected with it somehow.”

“Like sunflowers?”

“They are among them. They transmit solar energy to people. Another is dandelion. It’s not appreciated, considered a weed. But when the field is all covered with dandelions, it’s like the Sun descended to the Earth. It makes your soul feel joyful. Then it becomes airy and white, like a cloud, and flies into the sky. Isn’t it great that dandelions exist?”

“Well, these dandelions have already made me crazy at my dacha, Alice!”

“I’m not talking about your dacha, but about the fields. I would be very sad if all the dandelions suddenly disappeared.”

“What other flowers are sunny?”

“Daisies, for example. But, according to a legend, it grows where a star fell from the sky. Like the birch, a symbol of Russian nature. In Belorussia, it’s the national flower along with cornflower. There are 350 species of daisies, a third of them can be found in Russia. The most famous is the unluckiest one, being constantly tormented by questions about love, whether one loves or does not. They have many folk names, one of them is sunny flower. Another interesting name is fortune-teller. Svetlana, what do you think of daisies?”

“White, living in fields, and what else?”

“I’m asking about their character, not about color.”

“Daphne, daisy is modest, charming, sweet.”

“That’s right. You need to feel each flower with your soul, tune in to its vibrations, understand it. So you’ll be able to see in the image of this or that flower the people you meet on your Path.”

“Well, Alice, what else can you say about daisies?”

“Daisies, for example, look like surprised eyes watching the clouds in the sky with curiosity. That is, they are inquisitive. According to a legend, in ancient times daisies served as umbrellas for field gnomes. It also has many medicinal properties, and not only a pharmacy daisy. For example, decoctions of it relieve toothache, treat colds, weaken allergic reactions, accelerate tissue healing. Chamomile is used in cooking, in particular, my distant relative, a yogi, added chamomile leaves to his salad. Very often it’s somehow used in cosmetic products. My grandfather used to plant daisies around apple trees as protection against the apple moth. The flower protects cabbage from caterpillars, and other flowers, such as phlox, from aphids. My grandfather and I used to lay out them in our rooms in the country house so that the mice could not feel at home there.”

“Where did the word daisy come from?”

“At first, all daisies in Russia were called navels, Roman navels, then – roman grass, or simply romans, until at the end of the 18th century a Russian agronomist called it chamomile, or daisy. It’s said to be the progenitor of the lush large-flowered chrysanthemum.”

“I don’t like chrysanthemum. It smells like autumn. Let’s talk about some sunny flower.”

“Is mimosa sunny, Daphne?”

“Yes, Sasha. What is the 8th of March without mimosa? Even Cannes celebrates Mimosa Day every year, but in February. True, what we are used to seeing on the eighth of March is not quite a mimosa, but branches of a silver or Australian acacia, grown on the Black Sea coast of the Caucasus.”

“Where does the real mimosa come from?”

“From tropical America. But it doesn’t matter. How would you characterize it, Sasha?”

“Sunny, it gives hope for an early spring, inspires optimism, pleases you, women …”

“Keep talking!”

“Alice, it’s fluffy and fragrant.”

“Yes, Daphne, fluffy, but it quickly curls into a hedgehog.”

“That’s right, mimosa is highly sensitive. Someone says that this plant immediately shrinks at wicked women. But mimosa leaf curls up at the first drops of rain, this is its defense against tropical downpours.”

“We don’t have tropical downpours, Daphne, so it means, the negative energy of women makes it curl up. Wait, I remembered one more flower, the Immortal Flower. Did we see it in the mountains on the way to the Guru’s Stone?”

“Yes, we did. It’s from Australia, grows in dry desert areas, it’s a dry flower, that is, it retains its shape and color after drying. It can stand for a long time without water in winter bouquets, it’s not afraid of frost. In villages, the immortelle was placed between the frames in the windows as a reminder of summer in winter. Another name is frost-grass. It has several scientific names, in particular, the golden Sun. Sometimes, the flameless flower with large pink or lilac flowers is considered the immortelle. It’s found in the south regions and the Caucasus.”

“Listen, Daphne, I thought that the immortal flower should be envied.”

“It shouldn’t be, as no one in general, but people are envious.”

“Talking with you, Daphne, we’ll slowly begin to understand the nature of flowers and people, respectively.”

“Alice, go on with the immortelle, don’t be distracted by people!”

“There is an Indian legend about how the immortelle was born. The two newlyweds went from the house of the bride’s parents to the house of the groom’s parents, but on the way they were torn to pieces by wild animals.”

“You are so bloodthirsty, Daphne!”

“Not me, Sasha, the legend. So, they were buried on the bank of a river, and in spring an unknown flower bloomed on the grave. A passing hunter liked it very much, and the hunter wished the flower, ‘Live forever!’ So, as you understand, this flower turned out to be the immortelle.”

“So does it grow on the graves?”

“Let’s say it likes the mounds formed after digging holes, especially if the soil is sandy. In ancient times, the immortelle was endowed with supernatural powers, they believed that the Soul of the deceased moved into it to communicate with still living relatives and friends, to convey their last greetings to them.”

“Are there any more cheerful legends about it?”

“The immortelle has a secret name, according to a legend, it helps to find ancient treasures.”

“Daphne, give me more details, I really want to make friends with Jupiter!”

“On the night of Ivan Kupala, with an immortelle and a blooming fern in your hands, try to pick up the gap-grass flower and walk around the neighborhood until you get pain in your eyes. And then immediately grab a shovel and dig, dig until you find something!”

“Thank you, Daphne, I understand, the immortelle won’t help me with Jupiter.”

“People consider the cat’s paws plant as immortelle, too. A cute fluffy name, its inflorescences look like paws of a cat, soft as velvet. But they are so dry that animals don’t eat them. The icons corner was decorated with cat’s paws in the villages, that’s why their other name is the grass of the Virgin.”

“Does the flower have medicinal properties?”

“Cat’s paws in the language of doctors is chest herb, they make tea for colds. Another name is the herb from 40 ailments, in particular, it helps with cuts for fast blood clotting.”

“Alice, is it used in cosmetics, the immortelle?”

“You mean, is it added as an elixir of life to a cream, for example?”

“Well…”

“Yes, it’s used, but the immortality is not there. I don’t know about perfumes, but the moths don’t like smell of immortelle, so feel free to hang it in the closet so that your mink is not bitten.”

“What other sunny flowers are there?”

“Dahlia, for example. It’s called the Son of the Sun, and the Mayans considered this flower the Solar Messenger. The area where dahlias are planted should be illuminated by the Sun for at least six hours a day. A proud flower from the aster family suffering from maximalism.”

“You can also say it’s strong, Daphne, able to keep such a heavy hat on the stem without breaking.”

“Right, that’s why dahlia in England is considered a flower of self-confident people who stand firmly on their feet. It was called Dahlia after the Swedish botanist, then it was renamed as Georgin in honor of the St. Petersburg academician Johann Georgy. The flower lived in the mountainous regions of South America. Whole thickets of wild dahlias were found in Mexico, Peru and Chile. Sun worshipers used dahlias in their rituals, planted at the temples of the Sun, decorated the temples with them from the inside. The Aztecs ate baked flower tubers with pleasure.”

“Like potatoes, right?”

“Yes, it seems so. It was when Europe had just experienced a potato boom that a traveling doctor brought some dahlia tubers from Mexico as a delicacy gift to the King of Spain. The flower was planted in the garden of the Escorial Palace, but as a result, it became the King’s favorite flower, not a vegetable.”

“Didn’t he like the taste?”

“It’s more correct to say, he liked the color more. There is even a legend about what happened to the flower next.”

“Someone must have been killed!”

“Exactly. People love bloodthirsty stories. The King liked the flower so much that he forbade anyone to look at it, except for the gardener George and himself. The gardener, unfortunately, told his beloved about the wonderful flower. The girl stopped eating, sleeping, so she became completely exhausted, she wanted to see a miracle so badly. George dug up a flower tuber and planted it under her window. As soon as the flower blossomed, the girl agreed to become the gardener’s wife. But people are jealous creatures. They told the King about the poor gardener, and he was seized by the guards, imprisoned and died soon. However, the flower escaped from the royal confinement and has since been called ‘Georgin’ in honor of the gardener.”

“Listen, Alice, what flower is the most legendary?”

“If you dig a bit, you’ll find a whole bag of legends about each flower. The lily of the valley, for example, is the King of Flowers, according to Tchaikovsky. Do you think it’s sunny or moony?”

“A moony one,” Svetlana said.

“I don’t know, Daphne, whether it’s sunny or moony, but it should be protected. It’s defenseless.”

“The lily of the valley among the ancient Germans and Scandinavians was considered the flower of the goddess of the rising Sun. They held festive celebrations with dances around the fire in honor of the goddess, decorating everything around with lilies of the valley, and holding a bouquet in their hands. They danced until the flowers withered. Then they threw them into the fire as a sacrifice. Since the 17th century, the French celebrated a similar feast of lilies of the valley on the eve of the first Sunday in May. Boys invited girls to dance by offering them a bouquet of lilies of the valley. Having agreed to dance, girls held out their bouquet in response. If it was the question about possible wedding, girls pinned the grooms’ bouquet on their dresses or thrown to the ground in protest.”

“Daphne, so many lilies of the valley died for nothing!”

“Alice, so what are the legends about it?”

“In England, they say that lilies of the valley appeared in the forest at the place where the fabulous hero defeated the terrible dragon. In Ancient Greece, from drops of fragrant sweat of Diana, the goddess of hunting, who was running away from the Faun. In Russia, they believed that when Sadko, instead of the sea princess, gave his heart to the darling of fields and forests, the see princess went ashore weeping. A lily of the valley appeared out of her tears as a symbol of purity, unrequited love and sorrow. In some countries, they say that lilies of the valley grew out of the beads of Snow White’s scattered necklace. Lilies of the valley are also the lanterns of the dwarves. They are the tears of a girl waiting for a Cossack from a campaign, the happy laugh of a mermaid, scattered through the spring forest, when she first learned the earthly love.”

“Well, at least one legend about happiness! Daphne, tell me more about what and how she found out there!”

“Sasha, if you are interested in mermaids, we are not talking about them now! Alice will tell you about mermaids later! We have lilies of the valley on the program!”

“After flowering, lilies of the valley have a large red berry. It has a legend, too. Spring, being an overly loving girl, passing by on the Earth, caressed Lily of the valley, and it fell in love with her. Once and forever. When Spring went away, leaving the flower to the mercy of Summer, Lily of the Valley wept so bitterly that the blood of its heart turned the berries red.”

“You’re right, Daphne, the thirst for blood in people is inexhaustible.”

“Alice, what’s the family of the lily of the valley?”

“A relative of all lilies. Its scientific name translates as the lily of the valleys blooming in May. It was called among people, originally in Poland, as deer flower, for the leaves, similar to the ears of a fallow deer. In some places, the lily of the valley is called rabbit ears, a May bell by the Germans, a girl’s tear by the Bulgarians. It was considered a sacred flower by the North American Indians, still nowadays it’s one of the three symbols of Massachusetts.”

“The other two symbols, what flowers are these, Alice?”

“Not flowers, an elm and a seagull.”

“It’s interesting, Daphne, lily of the valley, elm and seagull, what’s the connection?”

“It’s interesting that lily of the valley was cultivated in ancient Egypt, and they managed to grow it all year round. Their lilies of the valley were not white, but pink and red. Lily of the valley is a healing herb, once it was the emblem of doctors of medicine. Nicolaus Copernicus is depicted in a portrait with a bouquet of lilies of the valley in his hand.”

“Did Copernicus practice medicine?”

“He was a great astronomer, which didn’t prevent him from treating people with herbs. So, the bouquet depicted in the portrait was presented to Copernicus as a respect for his success in medical practice.”

“So what does lily of the valley treat?”

“According to Professor Botkin, a tincture of its flowers was used as a remedy for heart disease. A lot of things, in fact.”

“Okay, Alice, let’s not talk about diseases. Give an example of at least one moony flower.”

“Moony is for me personally. For you, it may somehow be classified differently. Poppies, for example. What can you say about them? What does this flower look like?”

“Dangerous, Daphne. It quietly creeps up and DAC, you won’t break out forever.”

“I would say intoxicating. An ancient flower. Its seeds were found in the dwellings of primitive man. The oriental poppy is considered the most beautiful, and the sleeping poppy is the most common. According to a legend, Nature gave people Night so that they would not work 24 hours a day. But people didn’t get the hint. Then Nature sent a husband to Night, called Sleep. The two of them managed most of the people, but there were still a few left unconquered. So Night and Sleep got children, Dreams. But one person couldn’t sleep, being too preoccupied with his problems, he lay on the meadow looking at the sky. Dream got angry at its own weakness, stuck its staff into the ground and flew away. Night breathed life into the staff, it sprouted, blossomed and became a poppy.”

“How long ago did they learn to make sleeping pills from poppies?”

“Even in ancient Egypt, it was grown on plantations for sleeping potion. But it was used not only as a sleeping pill, but also as a pain reliever. In ancient Greece, poppies were dedicated to the god of sleep, Hypnos and the god of dreams, Morpheus, they were just depicted with poppy bouquets or in poppy wreaths. It was believed that around the dwelling of the god Morpheus, thickets of flowering poppies were growing and dreams were flying like butterflies. Morpheus touched people with the flower, they fell asleep and had dreams. The poppy wasn’t only a symbol of Sleep, but also of Death, because an excessive dose could be fatal. It was believed that anyone who accidentally fell asleep in a poppy field would subsequently fall ill with sleeping sickness.”

“Daphne, is there anything good about poppies?”

“Poppy is very prolific, with about 30,000 seeds in its pods. In ancient Rome, the flower was dedicated to the goddess of agriculture and fertility, and in Germany it’s considered a symbol of fertility. Poppy is also associated with family happiness. The temple of Hera, the patroness of matrimony, was traditionally decorated with poppies. In Belorussia, even today, during weddings, porridge made of millet and poppy seeds is distributed for luck. In Siberia, poppy seeds are sprinkled into the shoes of newlyweds to prevent them from being childless. In some countries, the groom’s friends put poppies in their buttonholes, and the bridesmaids decorate themselves with poppies. The flower is considered a symbol of beauty and youth there. A typical New Year’s treat in Poland is dumplings with poppy seeds.”

“So is poppy good or evil, Alice?”

“The Slavs believed that poppy seeds drive away all evil spirits. In Polessie, poppies were consecrated on the day of Poppies, in case of drought, the consecrated seeds were used in rituals for causing rain. By the way, both the words top head, or dome, and poppy in Russian originated from the word poppy. Among symbolist artists, poppy is the progenitor of the flowers of Evil, and in China, unkind beliefs are associated with poppies.”

“Don’t talk about the unkind ones, Daphne. I understood, it all depends on a personal view of a flower and with what we associate it.”

“Yes, that’s right. There are a few more kinds of poppies. For example, the blue poppy with yellow, instead of black, stamens and pistil grows in the Himalayan mountains and, according to a Frenchman, is the joy of any botanist. In the north of Russia, there are yellow polar poppies, they can survive under the ice.”

“The blue mountain poppy is something unimaginable! Alice, you mentioned edelweiss before lunch. Where does it grow? I haven’t heard anything about it.”

“It grows in the highlands of Europe and Asia. Translated from German, it’s noble white. Pretty unpretentious, it grows on dry, poor soil. Botanists have discovered that the flower completely absorbs ultraviolet radiation, which, being especially strong in the mountains, can burn the leaves, but the flower filter passes the light needed for photosynthesis without problems.”

“Here are the conclusions, it’s a smart flower, a highlander, and even a noble one. Right, Daphne?”

“Well done, Sasha, you are a capable student. Edelweiss flowers resemble silver stars. In France, they are called Alpine star, in Italy – the silver flower of the rocks. Among people living in the mountains, edelweiss is considered a symbol of happiness and love.”

“Is there a legend about someone who died, Daphne?”

“You guessed it right. Two lovers had to part forever. They thought it would be better to die in order to be together in Heaven. They jumped off the cliff. A snow-white edelweiss grew in that place as a symbol of courage and strong will, as a sign that Love is stronger than Death.”

“The more I listen to you, Daphne, the more it seems to me that, digging deep into the legends, you won’t find a single flower appeared on the Earth from happiness. Is there another legend about edelweiss?”

“Yes, there is. A capricious princess rejected all the knights and set a condition that she would marry only the one who would bring her a star flower. Many men tried to marry the princess, but in vain. Whoever tried, fell off the steep slope and crashed to death. Years passed. Once a knight nevertheless managed to get to the flower and brought it to the princess, but she became too old.”

“What passions, Daphne!”

“The third legend about edelweiss is as well bloodthirsty. Long-haired beauties with huge claws live on high impregnable rocks. Their claws are to make it easier to climb rocks. So, the beauties take care of the star flower and don’t allow anyone to get to it, they throw everyone into the abyss. Only those who really love with all their hearts are allowed to pick a flower, which becomes the talisman of Love. They say that the one who picks edelweiss will gain good luck and the heart of the one to whom he gives it. So men tried to give their beloved a bunch of edelweiss to prove the sincerity of fiery feelings.”

“Oh, Daphne, I hope you won’t demand such feats from applicants for the role of your Stone Wall!”

“Sasha, he’ll be Edelweiss himself! Alice, tell me, isn’t aster a star flower?”

“Yes, Svetlana, aster means a star. Especially needle-shaped asters look like stars. According to the legend of a Parisian astronomer, who devoted part of his life to botany, the flower grew from a speck of dust that fell from a star, and now asters communicate with their sister stars at night.”

“Well, at least the Parisian astronomer wasn’t bloodthirsty!”

“Alice, do asters come from Paris?”

“No, asters are one of the most ancient plants. Once near Simferopol, a 2,000 years old tomb was opened. Among different leaves and pine cones, they found an image of an aster, however, the original asters looked like different. They came to Europe from China about 250 years ago. At that time, foreigners were banned from entering China. Monks were among the first to visit behind the Iron Curtain and discovered about 4,000 varieties of Chinese asters. In France, aster is called the queen of daisies, since they belong to the same family. In Hungary, aster is autumn rose. In ancient Greece, it was considered an amulet. In Tibetan medicine, Altai and Tatar asters are used. And two more types of asters help in geologic search of nickel.”

“Do they consult the stars and tell geologists where to go?”

“They change color in the nickel deposits. It’s also interesting that annual pink asters were grown in Antarctica at a scientific station in a small heated outbuilding.”

“Daphne, here is the conclusion: aster is a star, an oracle, an assistant, it’s persistent, can heal and protect, like an amulet. Right?”

“Yes, well done.”

“Alice, what are the other ancient flowers?”

“Magnolia, for example. How many years before you and me do you think it was on the Earth?”

“Well… 3,000.”

“A million, Daphne.”

“80 or 95…”

“95 what?”

“Million…”

“Unbelievable! It’s impossible to live that long!”

“In different sources they write differently: 80, or 95… Japanese archaeologists found a petrified flower on the island of Hokkaido. It looks like a variety of modern magnolia. Biologists say this is the first known fossil flower from the Mesozoic era. Both in the Cretaceous and in the Tertiary periods, it was widespread up to the modern Arctic. There were no bees yet, but magnolia was already in full bloom. The most famous plant from the magnolia family is the evergreen nutmeg, brought to Europe from India in the middle of the 6th century. There are evergreen magnolias and deciduous ones. Both trees and shrubs. It’s a decorative plant, it has different colors and shapes of petals. I really like pink one with large petals. I couldn’t tear myself away from it in the botanical garden. It usually grows in the tropics and subtropics, for example, in America, South-East and East Asia. I saw it in Java, Bali, Singapore, Thailand and somewhere else. By the way, Vertinsky wrote a song about Singapore and called it ‘Tango Magnolia’. We have a lot of magnolias on the Black Sea coast of the Caucasus and in the Crimea.”

“What about the legend?”

“A Chinese legend. Are you ready? Evil non-humans attacked a peaceful Chinese settlement, killed everybody, except for 100 girls. Those were killed in turn for 99 days and nights. On the last night, the last girl, before her death, hugged the earth, strewn with the dead bodies of her friends, and asked not to allow the dead girls to disappear from the Earth forever. The next morning, having waken up, the killers found that the dead bodies had disappeared, but a tree with a hundred white and pink buds appeared there. They chopped the tree into pieces and scattered it over the steppes and hills. But each piece turned into the same tree of magnolia.”

“Daphne, I want all the legends rewritten by a non-bloodthirsty Parisian astronomer!”

“Something tells me that he is already in Another Reality.”

“Alice, don’t get distracted, keep talking!”

“They brought magnolia to Europe from America in the 17th – 18th centuries. Everyone was delighted, and the magnolia fever began, similar to the tulip fever in Holland. They say that the most beautiful magnolia is large-leaved, each leaf is like an umbrella, up to a meter, and in total there are six or seven leaves in the umbrella. Essential oil is extracted from the leaves and flowers of magnolias. Moreover, if a match is lit next to a magnolia in hot weather, a violet flame will immediately flare up, because the evaporation of the essential oil is very strong. The Aztecs’ favorite kind of magnolia was the ‘sacred ear’, its petals are very fleshy and with wrapped edges, they resemble the human ear. Cherimoya was known among the Incas, they say, its fruits were delicious. Caulifloria is a magnolia with flowers growing directly on the trunk. Ylang-Ylang is used in perfumery. Just be careful, the air oversaturated with magnolias causes dizziness up to fainting. Sheaths and handles for Japanese swords are also made of its wood, and the plants themselves are often used in works of art as symbols of southern countries.”

“So multi-faceted, Daphne, magnolia is. A southern girl, or oriental, or both. It dances tango, causes the fever of delight and dizziness. It flashes with a violet flame. It can fight, having scabbards and swords. It deals with works of art, it’s wise, since its family is already 95 million years old. Oh, Daphne… Daphne, I get it, you are a magnolia!”

“Yes, magnolia is a moony flower,” I said thoughtfully.

“Listen, Alice, if we are already dealing with all sorts of exotics, where there is magnolia, there is camellia. Appropriate, at least.”

“Camellia flowers are odorless, and the petals look like a wax statue. It’s considered beautiful, but soulless. Heartless, but enticing. It’s unable to love, attracting and repelling at the same time. According to a legend, Cupid went to Saturn and saw beautiful ice women there, who could not be hit by his arrows. He was offended and asked his mother, Venus, to punish the soulless beauties who had no drop of tenderness in their hearts. Venus sent them to the Earth turning them into camellia flowers. In Japan, China and Germany, camellias are placed on graves on the days of commemoration of the dead. Camellia came in Europe from the Philippine Islands thanks to a monk, after whom it was later named, and became a common hobby.”

“Dumas’ novel ‘The Lady of the Camellias’, right?”

“Yes, that’s right. A beauty always appeared in high society with these flowers and constantly decorated everything at home with them. Therefore, the camellia seller began to call the customer ‘the lady with the camellias’.”

“Without knowing the legend, I wouldn’t think anything like that!”

“In China, camellia is called mountain tea. It has its own legend. A Buddhist monk saw Buddha in a dream and promised to pray day and night without closing his eyes. But once the dream still won. Having woken up, the monk became angry with his eyelids, pulled them out and threw them on the ground. A tea bush has grown in that place, and tea of its leaves drives away sleep.”

“Daphne, another bloody horror story! Well, at least not for the night.”

“Alice, let camellia alone, let’s better talk about the orchid.”

“Mysterious, enigmatic, attracting into the pool of passions with petals that look like butterfly wings. The orchid family is the most aristocratic of all plants. It’s also an ancient flower, that got its name from a student of Plato. Orchids grew in the thickets of Central and South America, in South-East Asia, they came to Europe about 250 years ago, and the orchid boom began. People died for orchids because they wanted to get a lot of money for them. The orchids died on the way and didn’t take root in Europe. As a result, many species don’t exist anymore.”

“Cruel people, Daphne.”

“In Russia, by the way, we have about a hundred and twenty orchid relatives. One of them is the night violet. It doesn’t look like a violet, but at night it smells especially strong and attracts all sorts of night butterflies. The leaves of the flower resemble lilies of the valley. A drink from it is believed to bewitch anyone. Prishvin wrote a lot about the night violet. It’s strictly forbidden to collect them, since seven years pass from the ripening of seeds to the appearance of flowers. Another relative of the orchid is cuckoo’s tears, a plant with spotted leaves, as if drenched with tears of an upset cuckoo. There are also slippers of Venus, in England called ladies’ shoes, and in America, ad nauseam prosaically, are known as moccasins.”

“Daphne, we won’t go to America, it’s too prosaic. Let’s make a potion of night violets here!”

“Alice told you, it’s forbidden to pick them up!”

“Sorry, exactly, I forgot. Okay, let’s better materialize the Stone Wall in the form of edelweiss.”

“39 species of Russian orchids are listed in the Red Book. Orchids are the national flower of many countries. Our astronauts took them to fly across the sky.”

“Alice, since we are talking about night violets, tell us about ordinary ones!”

“A sad flower, dual. According to an ancient Greek legend, the God of the Sun, Apollo, was pursuing a beautiful woman. She asked Zeus for help. He turned her into a violet blooming in the sky. But the daughter of Zeus, Persephone, really liked the violets, she looked at them every day. At the moment of contemplation, she was kidnapped by the lord of the Kingdom of the Dead, Hades. Persephone, resisting, dropped the violets to the ground. Persephone’s mother, Demeter, the goddess of fertility, went to look for her daughter and completely forgot about the Earth, gripped by famine. Zeus decided that two-thirds of the year Persephone would be on the Earth with Demeter, and one-third with her husband Hades. That is, the violet is at the same time a symbol of sadness and death, especially for young girls, and a symbol of rebirth, nature that comes to life in spring. The Greeks decorated with violets their clothes, houses, statues of the gods, and even produced wine of violet flowers, calling it spring. The Greeks believed in its healing properties.”

“Daphne, did other nations also have grave motifs in violets?”

“The ancient Romans, Sasha, oddly enough, called violet the flower of Jupiter.”

“Wow!”

“The fields in the suburbs of Rome were completely dotted with violets. The Romans believed, like the Greeks, in their healing power. The Celts considered it a modest, virgin and innocent flower, they used to decorate with it the bed of newlyweds and … the graves of girls. In France, violets were a symbol of fidelity and constancy. Napoleon’s wife was fond of them. When Josephine was in prison, even before her wedding with Napoleon, she received a bouquet of violets as a gift from the jailer’s daughter and promised God to devote her life to breeding them if she escaped execution. She was released the next day. Napoleon invited her to a ball party. Josephine came with violet ornaments. Obviously, he fell in love and married her. In fact, all her life until the last day, Napoleon’s wife was engaged in violets. She even asked in her will to decorate her coffin with them. Although, she was not indifferent to dahlias.”

“Only gloomy persons can love the symbol of death and sorrow.”

“I would say, a philosophical personality. For example, the German poet Goethe always scattered the seeds of violets while walking in the suburbs. They say, his violets still grow there, called Goethe’s violets. Turgenev loved violets, too.”

“Daphne, we urgently need to change the gloomy subject to something bright and light. So?”

“Lotus, Sasha. A symbol of absolute purity in Buddhism, renunciation of the earthly. Though it grows in dirty water, no dirt ever sticks to it. The divine flower is mostly white or pink. But the Nile lotus, or heavenly lily of the Egyptians, was blue. During excavations of the tomb of Pharaoh Ramses II, several dried lilies were found that retained their color, despite the 3,000-year stay in the tomb. The lotus grew in the Nile River and was dedicated to the fertility goddess Isis and Osiris, the god of the Sun. The latter was depicted sitting on a lotus leaf. Like a water lily, lotus opens in the morning with the sunrise, and sinks into the water in the evening. Although even the Egyptians noticed that the lotus could open even at moonrise. Heine wrote that in the state emblem of Egypt there were five lotus flowers; the scepter of the Egyptian pharaohs was made in the form of a lotus flower on a long stem; the sacred flower was present on coins and tombs, on the walls of palaces and temples, on sacrificial altars, everywhere.”

“And in India?”

“The red lotus is the emblem of India. Although bright red lotuses grow also in Tibet and Mongolia. In general, lotus is a sacred flower in many countries, including China and Japan, as a symbol of Spirit and Matter, Fire and Water, fertility. The lotus seed even before its growth contains a miniature prototype of the entire future flower, as if nature shows us the transition of the image from the World of Ideas to the Earthly Reality. The ancient Hindus represented the Earth in the form of a lotus flower. As in Egypt, the flower was dedicated to the goddess of fertility. They also said, that lotus flowers were a ship on which a drowning man in the middle of the ocean of life could find his salvation. By the way, in the Book of the Dead there is a whole chapter ‘Transformation into a Lotus’. In Buddhism, artists often paint the Lotus Lake, where the flower communicates with the Soul of the deceased. If a person was kind and bright during his lifetime, the flowers bloom, and if he was evil, they wither. In India, they sing songs about lotus, dancing and depicting it with hands: sleeping, blooming, in every possible way.”

“What’s the legend about lotus?”

“Lots of legends. But, despite the sacredness of the flower, people used to eat lotus. For example, in the same Egypt. The roots were eaten, and the seeds were used to make flour and bake bread. Herodotus wrote about it. In China, India and Japan, flour, starch, sugar and oil are still made from lotus seeds and roots. The roots are used to make soup or serve as a side dish. In China, they make confectionery from candied lotus roots, they say, it’s like marmalade. It’s believed that lotus food restores beauty and youth to the elderly. They also ate a lotus tree. Homer described lotophages, lotus eaters on the island of Djerba in Tunisia. Rather, it was not about the lotus flower, but about the sweet fruits of the lotus tree. According to Greek mythology, the nymph Lotis turned into it, fleeing from her pursuer.”

“Daphne, in Greek myths and legends, girls are always pursued by all sorts of scoundrels. It was hard for them to live in Greece! Don’t go there if someone suddenly offers, otherwise, God forbid, you’ll turn into a tree, like that nymph… And in Christianity, is lotus a sacred flower?”

“Christianity replaced it with a lily.”

“Listen, Alice, you seemed to be saying something about the connection between the lotus and the lily of the ponds, are they relatives?”

“Yes, it lives modestly in a lake, in a pond or in a swamp and doesn’t even realize itself as a relative of the sacred lotus. In the same way, it appears on the surface of the water only in sunny weather, it has an invisible connection with the Sun, and if there are clouds in the sky, it will never appear, spending the day at the bottom in the water kingdom. It’s also interesting that the water lily flower, like lotus, constantly follows the movement of the Sun, slowly turning towards its rays. According to a legend, water lilies are mermaids who turn into flowers from sunrise to sunset. In ancient times, water lilies were called mermaid’s flowers, or white nymphs, so on. According to a Greek legend…”

“Daphne, don’t say that someone was chasing someone again!”

“No, the flower arose from the body of a beautiful nymph who had died from love and jealousy for the indifferent Hercules. According to the legend of the North American Indians, water lilies were born from heavenly sparks spilled on the Earth when two stars collided in the struggle for an arrow launched by an Indian chief. True, there is also a legend about a beautiful girl and a terrible Swamp King. The latter married her by trickery. She went to the bottom, and instead of her, a beautiful water lily appeared on the surface.”

“Daphne, is there anything less bloodthirsty?”

“Welcome! They say every water lily has a friend, an elf. The elves live in them, like in houses, sleep during the day in the depths of the flower, and at night they swing its pestle, like ringing a bell, so they call on their brothers to talk about their own, about girlish things. When they gather, someone put their feet into the water and dangles them, someone rows the petals like oars, and they float across the lake like on a boat.”

“Do they have medicinal properties?”

“The elves? The Slavic peoples called the water lily as overcome herb. They believed, it was possible to make a love potion from it. Its root helps against toothache and lack of appetite, the seeds cure dizziness. The leaves and flowers of the water lily were sewn into small bags and worn as a talisman. It was believed to be a good protector of a person when traveling, but forbidden to bring it home, as a bad sign, moreover, the flower is not friendly with vases. They picked flowers at certain hours, observing special rituals. Water lilies shouldn’t be cut with scissors or something sharp, it was believed that the stem would start bleeding, and the person would be haunted by nightmares, if the mermaids didn’t drag him to the bottom immediately.”

There was a pause. For some reason, we all simultaneously looked deep into the Sacred Lake.

“Daphne, I hope mermaids won’t drag us anywhere! You have revealed all their secrets to us!”

“Alice, listen, what is ikebana? Herbarium?”

“From the words ‘life’ and ‘flowers’, that is, living flowers. Ikebana is a process of contemplation and creativity by the Soul. It’s based on the principle of simplicity. It originated in Japan in the 15th century, first as an offering to the gods in temples. The task is to look at the flower, to understand it, to see it in a different way. A person makes up a certain composition by arranging a single flower or a branch. There are several schools, the first one was founded by a Buddhist temple priest in Kyoto, they taught the style of ikebana, still used in religious rituals. The most modern is the School of Grass and the Moon, created by an artist and sculptor, called in the West as the Picasso of Flowers. Ikebana has not only flowers and plants, but also stones, fabrics, metal and other materials.”

“Alice, that’s enough about ikebana. Can you tell us which flower is your Brother, Ray, and who are you?”

“I have already told you, but it doesn’t matter.”

“When?”

“Just recently.”

“You are kidding again, Alice!”

“No, Svetlana, Daphne seems to have mentioned all her characters for us. Besides, I told you, she is magnolia!”

“You are a capable student, Sasha,” I smiled.

RAM called us to the bus. We sat in our usual places. I took out my bag to put the camera away, opened it and grabbed the hand of Svetlana, who was sitting next to me. “What’s up?” she asked in surprise.

“GLASSES!!!”