IX: Celandine
A case of doppelgänger confusion.
Good morning. Today is nonidi, the 29th of Pluviôse, Year CCXXXI. We celebrate la chélidoine, a medicinal herb for detoxing.
What we have here is a case of mistaken identity. There are two celandines – Greater Celandine and Lesser Celandine, because mom plays favorites – that are not related to one another botanically but both are abundant, wild, and carry distinctively yellow flowers.
From a historical perspective, d'Eglantine was probably wanting to include Greater Celandine, which is the wart-healing member of the poppy family that has been the subject of study for centuries and was named by the Greeks for its propensity to bloom when the swallows return from their migration (the Greek name literally translates as "swallowwort").
But from a "what's blooming in Pluviôse" perspective, he could only have been thinking of Lesser Celandine, a carpet-like member of the buttercup family that blooms glassy golden flowers in early spring, and is a common sight in graveyards and parks in northern France and Great Britain. In this cold and rainy season, there are no swallows to be found.
Greater Celandine has some medicinal properties. Lesser Celandine is poisonous.
So let's take this opportunity to visit another plausible, but tragic, case of mistaken identity.
