Gardenias On The Left — Billie Holiday
With vocal improvisations to beat the band—and white flowers behind her ear—Eleanora Fagan became Billie Holiday. Athena had her helmet and Spanky McFarland his two-tone beanie. Where would The Cat in the Hat be today except for that teetering stovepipe with the stripes? Curled in…
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Cinquefoil: I’ve Got a Secret
A white rose is still mysteriously fresh after five centuries. At the Musee National du Moyen Age – what English speakers in Paris call “The Cluny Museum” – flowers bloom by the thousands, most of them five hundred years old. In tapestry, stone, gold, and…
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Makahiya— Shy Heroine of the Philippines
A blossom newly named for President Arroyo sets off fury in a land of flower legends. Maybe because its countryside is so very lush, Philippine Island culture abounds with creation myths, legends that “remind us of our connection to nature. We have a lot of…
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The Mayflower
Thorny hedge or creeping shrub? There’s cross-Atlantic dispute over which plant gave its name to the Pilgrims’ ship. At daybreak November 9, 1620, passengers on the Mayflower at last spotted land. They’d been on board for 66 days, having left Southampton, England, on September 16,…
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