Cornflower came to us from ancient times. During excavations of Tutankhamun's tomb, many items from precious stones and gold. But a small wreath of cornflowers found in the sarcophagus shocked archaeologists. The flowers dried out, but retained their color and shape.
This is one of the favorite flowers of Russians. It grows in golden cereal fields, reflecting all the blue in its inflorescences. summer sky. Beautiful cards and pictures with images of cornflowers can be found on the website in sections to give to your loved ones in in social networks or send by email.
By ancient Greek legend, "flower of the Centaur", or Centaurus, from here Latin name cornflower - Centaurea (the scientific name of blue cornflower is Centaurea cyanus, was in the medicinal arsenal of the centaur Chiron, who raised him in a deep forest young hero hidden from the bloodthirsty ruler. The old centaur had the gift of healing, he treated with ointments, herbal infusions, and one of his favorite plants was “centaurea” - blue cornflower. He found that cornflower juice, especially Centaurea jacea, has the precious property of healing wounds, and with it he healed the wound inflicted by the poisoned arrow of Hercules. This was the reason for naming the plant Centaurea. As for the second half of its name - “cyanus”, in Latin it simply means “blue”, a color that is characteristic of our flower.
One of the ancient Roman legends says that this flower got its name in honor of a blue-eyed young man named Cianus, who was struck by its beauty and collected these blue flowers and weaved garlands and wreaths from them. The young man even dressed in a blue dress and did not leave the fields until all the cornflowers he loved had been collected. A beautiful young man was once found dead in a grain field, surrounded by cornflowers. Having learned about this, the goddess Flora, for such constancy and as a sign of special affection for him, turned the young man’s body into a cornflower, and all cornflowers began to be called cyanus (cyanus means blue).
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One day the sky reproached the cornfield for ingratitude: “Everything that inhabits the earth thanks me. Birds send me singing, flowers - fragrance and color, forests - a mysterious whisper, and only you do not express gratitude, although it is no one else, but I who fill the roots grains with rainwater and make the ears ripen." “I am grateful to you,” answered the field. “I decorate the arable land with ever-wavering greenery, and in the fall I cover it with gold. I don’t know how to express my gratitude in any other way. Help me, and I will shower you with caresses and talk about love.” “Okay,” the sky agreed, “if you can’t come up to me, then I’ll come down to you.” A miracle instantly happened: magnificent blue flowers, similar in color to the sultry sky, grew among the ears of corn. Since then, the ears of cereals, with every breath of the breeze, bend towards the messengers of the sky - cornflowers and whisper tender words to them.
The Slavs also knew about healing power cornflower and since ancient times this plant has been used to heal a number of diseases. The Slavs have two holidays associated with cornflowers: “the ear went to the field” - celebrated when ears of corn appeared in the field and the “birthday sheaf” - held at the end of summer before the harvest.
During the holiday, young girls and boys gathered on the outskirts of the village. They stood in two rows opposite each other, held hands, and a girl decorated with cornflowers and ribbons walked along their arms, as if on a bridge. Couples moved from last rows at first until the girl in their arms approached the field. At the cornfield, she went to the ground, plucked several ears of corn and ran with them to the village, where her parents were waiting for her. The procession from the village to the field was accompanied by singing: “The ear has gone to the field, to the white wheat; rye will be produced for the summer with oats, with spruce grouse, with wheat.”
The “birthday sheaf” holiday was held at the end of summer, before the harvest of grain. Women housewives came out with bread and salt to reap the cornfields. They knitted the first sheaf, decorated it with cornflowers and placed it in the red corner of the house. The first sheaf bore the name of the birthday boy.
There is a legend about the origin of cornflower.
The king of the snakes fell in love with the beautiful girl, and she agreed to marry him. Her relatives did not want to give her away for a snake, but they had to do it. Already took his young wife to the bottom of the lake, where she lived in a beautiful crystal palace and gave birth to two children: a son, Vasilko, and a daughter, Gorpina. A few years later, the wife asked her snake husband to let her go see her family. He agreed, but only asked her and the children not to tell anything about him or about how they would get to their parents’ house. It turned into a wooden bridge, and the wife and children in a golden carriage rode across it from the lake and arrived home. Her father asked his daughter to lie down to rest, and he took his grandchildren out into the garden and began asking them about their father. Vasilek remembered his father’s order and was silent, and Gorpina blabbed that his father, turning around the bridge, was still standing over the lake and waiting for them to go back. Then the grandfather took an ax, went to the lake, cut the bridge into pieces, and returned back without telling either his daughter or grandchildren. When they got into the carriage and arrived at the shore of the lake, they saw that there was no bridge, and the water was all red with blood. Then the woman realized that her father had killed her husband, and asked the children which of them told their grandfather about their father. When she found out that it was Gorpina who killed her father, she ordered her to become a nettle and cause people the same pain that she caused her mother. And she turned her son into a cornflower, saying that people would take it for bouquets and consecrate it in church.
The legend, created under the influence of Greek legends about the discovery of the Cross of the Lord, says that cornflowers grew in the place where the cross on which Christ was crucified was buried. Helen, the mother of the Roman Emperor Constantine, who proclaimed Christianity as the state religion, went to look for where the persecutors of Christ hid His cross. The cross was buried in the ground, and so that no one would find it, they piled a bunch of garbage on the place and planted datura and henbane. God, in order to prevent the desecration of the holy place, gave a certain man named Vasily flower seeds and ordered them to be sown in the place where the poisonous herbs were planted. When Empress Helena after long search She prayed to God, He told her to look for a place where blue fragrant flowers grow. Elena went to Golgotha, found a place there among a pile of garbage where cornflowers were blooming, and dug up the cross of the Lord.
The appearance of cornflowers is told in a later Russian legend associated with the name of the famous Moscow holy fool St. Basil the Blessed (under whose name the Church of the Intercession on Red Square in Moscow is known). They say that when St. Basil died, his body was found among the odorous blue flowers. At first they thought that this smell was coming from the saint’s body, but then they were convinced that the grass in which it lay was fragrant. That's why the flowers, called cornflowers, smell like incense.
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There is another Russian legend about the origin of the cornflower.
A long time ago, a beautiful mermaid fell in love with the handsome young plowman Vasily. The young man reciprocated her feelings, but the lovers could not agree on where they should live - on land or in water. The mermaid did not want to part with Vasily, so she turned him into wild flower, whose color resembled the cool blue of water. Since then, according to legend, every summer, when blue cornflowers bloom, mermaids weave wreaths from them and decorate their heads with them.
Like these ones amazing stories preserved in folklore different nations about this modest blue wildflower - cornflower.
The ancient Egyptians and ancient Greeks had no idea what kind of flower the cornflower was. The first mention of this flower dates back to the times of Pliny the Elder. This cornflower flower accompanied people in the fields where grain crops were sown, they decorated their homes during the holidays, and various legends were dedicated to it. This blue flower was one of the most beloved in many countries.
Description of the cornflower flower
The genus of the cornflower flower is very extensive. Let us now take a look at a small but voluminous description of the cornflower flower. It has more than 800 species worldwide. It can be found in all corners of the globe, but is most common on the Mediterranean coast.
Types of flower
Some types of cornflowers like to grow only in certain areas. In Turkey you can find 180 species of this flowering plant, 109 of which are endemic, that is, those that grow locally. In the Union of Independent States, blue cornflower is considered the most popular, although in this territory there are also meadow cornflower, Pannonian cornflower, scabious cornflower, gray cornflower, as well as other types of flowers.
Legends about cornflower
The generic name of this flower is Centaurea. Translated, this means “centaur.” There is a legend that explains the appearance of this name. One day, Hercules accidentally hit the old centaur Chiron with an arrow. And he knew about healing and got rid of the wound he received thanks to cornflower juice.
The second legend about the cornflower tells the story due to which the cornflower began to be called “blue”. In ancient times, there lived a beautiful young man who loved this flower very much. He constantly wore wreaths and garlands made of cornflower. One day he was found dead surrounded by these blue flowers. The goddess Flora turned the guy’s body into a cornflower, after which this flower began to be called “blue cornflower.”
According to the second legend, cornflower received this color from the sky. One day the sky was angry with the grain field because she did not show gratitude to him. The field replied that the sky was too high, and under no circumstances could it reach the sky to thank for all the good things. Then the sky gave the earth an order so that blue flowers would grow in the field along with the ears of corn, their color reminiscent of the blue of the sky.
The Slavs have their own explanation of the word “cornflower”. According to legend, many years ago there lived a mermaid who loved the grain farmer Vasily. One day after work he was washing his face river water, and at that moment the mermaid appeared to him. He fell in love with her too, everything was fine with them, but they could not come to an agreement on where they should live. The mermaid did not want to live on earth, and Vasily did not want to go to the water element. The mermaid despaired and turned her lover into a flower, which was supposed to grow in the middle of a grain field and have a blue color, reminding her of the water surface. This is just one description of the cornflower flower. We read the following.
The Germans recognized this flower during the time of William I and Queen Louise, his mother. Fighting for the well-being of their family, Louise, her daughter and William hid from Napoleonic revenge. One day a local girl approached them with a basket of blue flowers and offered to buy them. The queen bought flowers and made a wreath for her daughter, which she liked and brought to good location spirit of the whole family. This fact seemed to mean that soon everything would work out and get better.
In Germany, the cornflower flower is a symbol of German views on social life, in Belgium symbolizes freedom, and in France it is a symbol of anti-Semitism. The Germans do not keep this flower in the house because it is believed that it will cause the bread to start molding. In Ukraine, ending from their gardens, people celebrate the festival of harvesting. They weave wreaths from ears of grain and petals and put them on the most beautiful girls. So you found out what cornflower is.
Several centuries ago, the French believed that if you infused cornflower flowers with melt water, you could get the best medicine for your eyesight.
The fact that people love to weave wreaths from these flowers has led to the fact that florists specially grow cornflowers and sell them on the eve of various holidays. In such short description you learned today on our website, we hope you enjoyed it. Good luck to you!
Drozd Natalya, Vasilki
CORNFLOWER(voloshka, Ukrainian) (Centaurea cyanus), presumably got its name in honor of the mythical centaur Chiron, who had the gift of healing people with medicinal plants. According to another version, this is Old Russian re-arrangement of Greek basilicon"royal" (flower, plant), derived from basileus"tsar".
A symbol of purity, friendliness and courtesy, modesty. Required element traditional Ukrainian maiden wreath.
Well and folk legends explain the origin of its name in their own way. There lived in the same village a widow with her only son Vasil. He was a handsome and hard-working guy. From morning to night he worked in his field, and then went to the river to wash and rest. A young mermaid saw him and fell in love. She began to call Vasil to her - look how beautiful I am, how cool and beautiful it is under my water. But Vasil flatly refused to leave his land, his field. He didn't even want to look at her. The mermaid got angry - if that’s the case, then don’t let anyone get you, but forever become a flower in your field. A flower swayed among the rye. It was blue, like the boy’s eyes, and people named that flower cornflower in honor of him.
There are legends about the origin of cornflowers in Christian literature. Such interesting legends were recorded in the Kharkov region. When they took down the body of Christ from the cross, they buried it in the garden, in a cave. And they ordered to bury the cross of the Lord in the mountain, level the place above it, and sow henbane seeds there. But God, seeing this malice, gave Vasily (who is unknown) the seeds of a fragrant potion and ordered him to sow it in the place where henbane was sown.
When Queen Helena, the mother of Emperor Constantine the Great, arrived in Jerusalem in 326 and wanted to find the Cross of the Lord, she could not find it for a long time and began to ask God to help her. Someone came to her and said: “Look for the fragrant potion of Vasily: where you find it, there you will find the cross.” They went to Mount Golgotha and found him in a place overgrown with cornflowers. Since then the cross has been decorated with cornflowers.
Another legend tells that during the reign of Ivan the Terrible, Vasily the Blessed, the holy fool, lived in Moscow. He walked around Moscow both in winter and summer barefoot, wearing only a shirt, with chains on his shoulders. He visited the royal and boyar chambers, and peasant huts. Spent the night most often in cemeteries he died there. They found him in the grass, there was such a fragrance around him! At first they thought that the body of the Blessed One was fragrant, but it turned out that the grass in which he lay was fragrant. And they called that grass Basil's grass - cornflowers.
In Ukraine, these flowers have long been loved and revered. In addition to the traditional, a wreath of devotion was woven from cornflowers with lovage leaves and given to the Cossack during separation, before long campaigns, so that he knew that they were waiting for him and loved, they believed that he would return from a foreign land to his native land safe and sound.
They decorated crosses in churches and placed them behind icons. On the Savior, cornflowers were blessed in the church along with ears of corn and bread baked from the new harvest. The cornflower motif was used in wedding towels, especially in the hospitable ones with which the newlyweds were greeted, in Ukrainian women's and men's embroidered shirts, usually with poppies and daisies. On Trinity Sunday it was the custom to decorate with wreaths as amulets against evil forces and to increase the offspring and well-being of livestock: sheep, cows, horses.
Cornflowers were used to make coffin lining, as well as wreaths for dead girls.
Legends about cornflowers Cornflower is a constant companion of a rye field; it is there that we most often meet this flower. Cornflower has a very interesting story and there are legends, poems and songs about him. The poppy adorns the grain fields of the south, and the cornflower is their beauty in the north. Lovely blue, like the southern sky, this flower serves as a faithful companion to the rye field and is almost never found in the wild anywhere else; and even if it were found, it could serve as a sure indication that where it now grows there was once a grain field or a road that led to it. Such a constant connection between cornflower and rye is explained by the fact that cornflower is not a native plant, but was brought to us along with rye, the homeland of which is considered to be adjacent to Southern Russia western part of Asia. As a result, it, like rye, was not known to either the ancient Egyptians or the ancient Greeks, especially in the first periods of the existence of Greece. Its first appearance in Europe, apparently, should be attributed to the time of Pliny the Elder, who lived from 37 to 79 AD. e., when the rye is in Ancient Rome It was also considered a cereal that could be eaten only in case of extreme hunger. The same Pliny, who spoke of cornflower as a flower used for weaving wreaths, reports that at the time of Alexander the Great it was not yet known in Greece. According to other sources, cornflower came to Europe even later, only during the Crusades, when another weed plant, always accompanying rye, was brought to us - cockle. But against last opinion - two ancient Roman legends, clearly indicating that cornflower was well known to the ancient Romans. One of them reports that this flower got its name (Cyanus) from the name of one beautiful young man who was so captivated by its beauty that he devoted all his time to weaving garlands and wreaths from it. This young man never left the fields as long as at least one of his favorite cornflowers remained on them, and he always dressed in a dress of the same blue color as them, which fascinated him so much. Flora was his favorite goddess, and of all her gifts, our flower was the gift that most fascinated the young man. He was subsequently found dead in a grain field, surrounded by cornflowers that he had been collecting. Then the goddess Flora, for his constancy and as a sign of her special affection for him, for his love for her, turned his body into a cornflower, and from then on all cornflowers began to be called “cyanus.” Another Roman legend explains the reason for the constant presence of cornflowers among grain fields. When Ceres, the goddess of harvest and agriculture, was once walking through the grain fields and rejoicing at the blessings and gratitude that humanity lavished on her for them, from the thicket of the ears of corn the plaintive voice of the cornflowers growing there suddenly rang out: “O Ceres, why did you order us to grow up among your grain fields?” cereals that cover the whole country with their luxurious ears? The son of the earth only calculates the amount of profit that your grains will bring him, and does not deign us with even one favorable glance! So give us a peak equipped with a spike, like the ears of grain drooping from the weight, or let us grow somewhere separately, where we could get rid of the contemptuous glances of man.” To this the goddess answered her dear flowers: “No, my dear children, I did not place you among the rustling ears of grain so that you would bring any benefit to humanity; no, your purpose is much higher; than what you assume and what man assumes: you must be shepherds among the great people - the ears of corn. That is why you should not, like them, make noise and bow your burdened head to the ground, but, on the contrary, you should bloom freely and cheerfully and look, like a pure image of quiet joy and firm faith, upward to the eternal blue sky - your place of residence deities. For the same reason, you have been given an azure, the color of the heavenly firmament, pastoral attire, to distinguish you as servants of heaven, sent to earth to preach faith to people and fidelity to the gods. Just have patience, the day of harvest will come when all these ears of corn will fall under the hands of the reapers and reapers, and then you, who now seem abandoned and alone, will attract everyone’s attention. The reapers will look for and tear you and, having made wreaths from you, will decorate their heads with them, or, having knitted bouquets from you, pin them on their chests.” These words calmed the offended cornflowers. Filled with gratitude, they fell silent and rejoiced at their prominent position and their high appointment. And so they continue to bloom, like lovely shepherds, among the wavering sea of ears of corn and tell people about the mercy and goodness of heaven. One day the sky reproached the plants of one grain field for ingratitude. “Everything,” it said, “that inhabits the earth thanks me. Flowers send me their fragrances, forests send me their mysterious whispers, birds send me their singing; only you stand as if petrified and remain stubbornly silent, although it is none other than me who fills your roots with refreshing rain and makes the golden grains of your golden ears ripen.” “We are not at all ungrateful,” the ears of corn objected, “we decorate the earth, your child, with an ever-waving and swaying sea of greenery, but we cannot otherwise express our gratitude to you: we have no way to ascend to you; give it to us, and we will shower you with caresses and talk about our love for you.” “Okay,” said the sky, “if you cannot ascend to me, then I will come down to you.” And so the sky ordered the earth to grow wonderful blue flowers, pieces of himself, among the ears of corn. And since then, the stalks of cereals bend with every breath of the breeze towards these offspring of the blue sky, caress them and whisper tender words of love to them. The German poet Glaser says: “Blue cornflower! You cheerfully nod your head Among the ears of corn to the reaper, So that your blue flowers remind him of the sky...” The scientific name of cornflower is Centaurea cyanus. The first half of it is derived from the Greek mythological creature - a centaur, depicted as a horse with the body of a bearded man carrying a lit torch in his hand. One of these centaurs named Chiron, distinguished by his ability to heal with medicinal herbs, found that the juice of cornflower, especially Centaurea jacea, has the precious property of healing wounds, and he healed himself with it from the wound inflicted by the poisoned arrow of Hercules. This was the reason for naming the plant Centaurea. As for the second half of its name - “cyanus”, in Latin it simply means “blue”, a color that is characteristic of our flower. This scientific name was given to cornflower only in the 18th century, when the famous Swedish botanist C. Linnaeus first put the entire botanical nomenclature in order and gave it to all plants known at that time, according to their distinctive features or historical data, names. Among the ancients, it was known under the general name “cyanus.” Cornflower has long been considered one of the best flowers for weaving wreaths, and therefore the demand for it, starting from the 16th century, was so great that some enterprising gardeners began to grow it in their gardens. Everyone especially liked its pure blue color. This color even prompted mystics to depict it as a symbol of fidelity and constancy. However, some, due to the tendency of cornflower flowers to sometimes turn red or turn white, considered it, on the contrary, an example of inconstancy, and even in many manuals of that time “On the meaning of flowers” it was said about him: “He whose heart is fickle, who himself does not know, Whatever he decides on, and puts up with this kind of hesitation, let him wear cornflowers, since these flowers, being blue, are cheerful and have the ability to turn into White color , do not retain their basic color for long.” Of all the peoples of Europe, cornflower enjoyed the greatest love and popularity among the Germans. It became especially dear to them since it became the favorite flower of Emperor William I and his mother, Queen Louise. We find the following story about this in the German magazine “Garden Houses”: “As everyone knows, Emperor Wilhelm I always passionately loved flowers, and therefore on his birthday the entire table intended for gifts presented to him was always completely covered with wonderful bouquets of the most luxurious flowers , which he always accepted with the greatest pleasure. At the same time, however, among the lush flowers of greenhouses and gardens, the modest cornflower, his favorite, which reminded him of a sweet, albeit bitter past, should never be forgotten. The preference he showed for this little blue flower of the field was rooted in his memory of his kind, unforgettable mother, Queen Louise, and two, very insignificant incidents in themselves, relating to the years of humiliation of Germany. These were difficult years, the times of the Napoleonic wars, when Bonaparte, having become the ruler of all of Europe, took cruel revenge on the German sovereigns who joined the coalition. Poor Queen Louise was forced to flee Berlin and take refuge for two years (from 1806 to 1808) in Konigsberg, spending summer and winter in a small estate located near the outpost. The privacy of the home, far from any political unrest, had a beneficial effect on the queen’s frayed nerves and helped her calm down a little. Here she walked with her children in a huge forest of hundred-year-old pines and tried to instill in them those good principles that later made them warm-hearted people, responsive to the grief of others. And then one morning, when, as always, walking with her son, who later became Emperor William I, and her daughter, Princess Charlotte, who later became the Russian Empress Alexandra Feodorovna (mother of Emperor Alexander II), she wanted to return to her park, A peasant girl, who was waiting for her at the gate with a whole basket of cornflowers, approached her and offered to buy them. Wanting to please the children, especially the ten-year-old Princess Charlotte, who with the greatest surprise looked at the lovely blue flowers she had never seen before, the Queen generously rewarded the saleswoman and took the cornflowers with her to the park. Having sat down on a bench here, the children began to sort out the flowers, and Princess Charlotte, with the help of her mother, tried to make herself a wreath from them. Things got better quickly, and soon the wreath was ready. This success so delighted and excited the naturally sick girl that almost always her pale cheeks turned bright red and she became all animated. When this wreath was put on her head, all the other children were delighted, seeing how it suited her. In itself, this extremely modest joy that gripped the children, however, poured deep consolation into the weary soul of Queen Louise, who had not seen even a glimpse of joy for a long time, and she felt in it, as it were, a harbinger of the imminent end of her suffering. Who would, of course, then have thought that this little girl, decorated with a wreath of cornflowers, would become the Empress of All Russia, and her young brother standing next to her would become the first emperor of a united Germany? But premonition creeps into us somehow by itself and in some inexplicable way forces us to predict the future that is sometimes hidden from us. Here too, as if overcome by some incomprehensible surge of joy, Queen Louise drew her children to her bosom and kissed them deeply, and the cornflower itself has since become a favorite for both her and Princess Charlotte, a harbinger of a bright new future " Another time - this was during the flight of the Prussian royal court to Memel - the royal family had to stop in the middle of the road because the carriage's wheel broke due to accelerated driving. Not knowing what to do, Queen Louise, waiting for the carriage to be repaired, sat down with the children on the edge of the road just next to the grain field. The children complained of fatigue and extreme hunger. Wanting to somehow cheer them up, the queen began to pick cornflowers and weave a wreath from them; At the same time, large tears rolled down her cheeks. Noticing this, her second son, Wilhelm (later the German Emperor), who was distinguished by a very soft heart and strong love for his mother, began to console and hug her. Touched by this love, the queen smiled, became encouraged and, laughing, put a wreath of cornflowers on her son’s head. Soon help came, the crew was corrected, and the royal family safely escaped captivity. Both of these incidents, no matter how insignificant they were, were, amidst difficult trials, like glimpses of distant happiness and therefore remained forever memorable both for Emperor William and for the rest of the royal family. There is a third story about the connection of a German house with cornflowers. They say that at one court ball, given unwillingly by the unfortunate royal couple to the Emperor Napoleon and his generals, Queen Louise appeared without any precious jewelry, only with a wreath of cornflowers on her head. And when the French began to make jokes about this, the queen remarked: “Yes, gentlemen, all our precious things were partly plundered, partly sold, in order to at least somehow help the needs of our ruined country; and our fields are so trampled by you that even a wild flower is now a great rarity.” The winners had no answer to this and fell silent. Many years passed, and Queen Louise's premonitions came true. Cornflower did not deceive her. The royal family, which was in exile and oppression, was restored to its rights, and Princess Charlotte, having married Emperor Nicholas I, from a small, insignificant princess became, as we have already said, a powerful All-Russian empress. And so, when the empress, many years later, once passed through Konigsberg, the residents of this city, wanting to please her and remind her of the time she lived in its environs, arranged a solemn meeting for her, in which cornflowers played an outstanding role. At the head of the procession that came to greet her were young girls dressed in white, with wreaths of cornflowers on their heads and with baskets of these flowers in their hands. All the buildings of the city were decorated with wreaths and garlands of cornflowers, all the monuments were entwined with them, and even all the poles of the banners hung on the houses were decorated with them. The most beautiful of the girls brought her a wonderful basket of these flowers, and the rest threw cornflowers on the ground and strewed her path with them. The Empress was moved to tears by this cordial reception and expressed her deep gratitude that the people of Koenigsberg had chosen the cornflower, so dear to her, to meet her. About the happy omen of the cornflower for the royal Prussian house, you can find the following note in the notebook of the crown prince. Friedrich Wilhelm, which he led during the war with Austria in 1866. In this book it is written when describing the battle of Náchod: “Colonel Walker drew my attention to the cornflowers growing around us. I picked one of them and took it with me for my wife. This seemed to me a good omen and should be counted among those numerous cases in which the meaning of this flower was expressed for us.” As a result of all of the above, this flower, beloved by Emperor Wilhelm I, became in the struggle that flared up in last years in Bohemia for the predominance of languages, the flower of the German party and is considered a symbol of German views. And therefore, even wearing it in a buttonhole arouses hatred in the Czechs, and in German-Bohemian magazines every now and then one comes across offensive and even insulting attacks on all those who wear cornflowers. There are many beliefs associated with cornflowers in Germany. Due to the fact that the stem and cup of the cornflower are covered with whitish hairs that look like threads of mold, in Pomerania peasants believed that bread would become moldy if cornflowers were kept in their rooms. On the other hand, here a water decoction of these flowers was considered an excellent remedy for eye inflammation. An infusion of these flowers in snow water was considered in the past to be the main means of strengthening the eyes even by the French Academy of Medicine and was called “casse-lunettes” (glasses-breaking), since it was assumed that thanks to it, sore eyes were so strengthened that they no longer needed spectacled. Treatment of eyes with cornflower blue water was practiced by Russian healers. Previously it was believed that cornflower plant, uprooted from the ground on the day of Corpus Christi, stops bleeding from the nose if held in the hand until it warms up. In the fall, based on the number of seeds found in the cornflower fruit, it was considered possible to conclude the price of bread next year. “How many seeds,” they said, “are in the cornflower fruit, so many thalers or pennies will bring a measure of rye.” In some areas of Germany, cornflowers were also used to intimidate children so that they would not walk through grain fields and trample on rye. “If you pick cornflowers,” they were told, “then the rye goat will grab you and kill you with its horns.” Instead of a goat, the role of a scarecrow was sometimes played by a rye wolf. This belief dates back to the Middle Ages, and in Frankfurt am Main in 1343, as Mangardt reports, there was even a house on Vasilkovaya Street that was called the “rye wolf.” As a result of this, sometimes the cornflower itself in the villages was called a goat (Ziegenbock) and was considered the personification of some kind of field goblin or demon. This goblin, according to their belief, sits in the cornflower and, when they are reaping bread, attacks lazy workers and workers, infecting them with disease. And therefore, when peasant girls go to reap for the first time, they are warned: “Beware that the rye goat hits you!” And if any of them gets sick from heat or fatigue, they say: “It was the rye goat that killed her.” Almost the same belief exists in some provinces of France. Only there the wolf takes the place of the goat, and that is why they say about lazy workers that a wolf has entered them. In the past, cornflowers were used to extract beautiful blue paint , very similar to ultramarine. To do this, they took not the reed, circumferential flowers of cornflower, but the tubular ones, located in the middle of the flower, the color of which is darker, and, putting them in a marble mortar, squeezed the juice out of them with a pestle and added alum to it, and then poured everything into a clean vessel and stored it in it until consumption. A paler blue paint was made from the reed flowers. Vinegar was previously made from cornflowers. There is a beautiful Ukrainian legend (can be found in S. Ivchenko’s book “Entertaining Botany”). “Evening was approaching. Exhausting its last strength, the exhausted horse trudged along wearily. And the young, handsome guy Vasily seemed to have not worked since early morning. He walked the furrow easily and confidently, as if playing with the handrails of the plow. How can you not look at such a young man? Leaving all her worries behind, the mermaid admired the handsome plowman. From afar, timidly, hiding behind the reeds, she had been incessantly watching him since the very morning, and when Vasily, having finished his work, went to the river to wash, she could not stand it and appeared before him in all her beauty. They fell in love with each other. They had complete agreement on everything, but they just couldn’t agree on where it would be better for them to live together. The mermaid called Vasily to her native water element, and he firmly stood his ground: let’s settle near the arable land. They were completely exhausted in disputes. Finally, realizing that the unyielding Vasily would never submit to her insistence, the mermaid decided on the last extreme: she turned him into a modest blue flower. More than once, watching raindrops, gathering in rivulets and merging into rivers, she hoped that the blue flower - Vasily - would eventually come to her house.” However, her expectations were not justified; the cornflower firmly clings to its native arable land with its roots. Cornflower sometimes plays a role in some folk festivals associated with arable farming. So in the Vladimir province, he took part in an interesting ritual of “driving the ear” - this is the name of the procession to the sown fields, when around Trinity Day the rye begins to ear. Young women, girls and boys, gathered on the outskirts of the village, take hands in pairs, forming a cross with them, and stand in two rows, facing each other. Then, along these arms, as if on a bridge, a little girl, all decorated with cornflowers and ribbons, walks. The couple whose hands it passed hurries to run forward and stand at the end of the row, and so the procession moves gradually to the very field, to the very place where the rye grows. Here the girl is lowered to the ground. She picks a few ears of corn, runs with them to the village and throws them near the church. The procession was accompanied by singing: “The ear went to the field, to the white wheat, Rye with oats was born for the summer, with spruce grouse, with wheat.” Another festival where cornflower takes part is called the “birthday sheaf”. It occurs already towards the end of summer, when rye, barley and wheat have ripened. Then the hostess, with bread and salt and a Sretensky candle in her hands, goes to reap the cornfield. And now the first sheaf is compressed and is called the “birthday boy”. The hostess brings it to the hut and places it near the shrine, where it remains until threshing. Then it is threshed separately and, having collected the grains from it, they are taken to the church for consecration; after which some of them are mixed with seeds left for sowing fields on next year, and some are kept as a healing agent against various kinds ailments. In some Little Russian districts, this celebration took place somewhat differently. At the end of the harvest, the reapers go around the field, collect the ears that were accidentally left uncut and weave a wreath from them, intertwining it with cornflowers and other wildflowers. This wreath is worn on the most beautiful girl and with songs they go to the master's, and in the past - to the master's courtyard. A boy walks ahead and carries a birthday sheaf decorated with cornflowers and other flowers. Approaching the gate, they sing: “Open the new gate, master, We carry a wreath of pure gold. Oh, come out, master, even onto the porch, Buy, buy the golden wreath, Because this wreath is entwined with gold.” The owner, or landowner, goes out onto the porch, greets the reapers with bread and salt, treats them to lunch and drinks them with vodka. A wreath made from the last ears of corn and cornflowers, and a sheaf brought by the boy, are handed over to the owner with the words “God grant that there will be bread for that year too.” The sheaf and wreath should stand in the front corner under the images until August 6th - the Transfiguration of the Savior, on this day they are carried to the church and consecrated along with bread baked from new rye, with new honeycombs and new apples and pears. The grains of the consecrated ears are stored until future sowing. It happens that the first sheaf is placed upright on a cart on top of all the other sheaves. The cart is accompanied by reapers, one of whom carries a wreath of ears of corn, and the other holds cornflowers and other wildflowers in her hands. Cornflower is also associated with the name of the martyr Vassa. By popular belief If you sow rye on the day of memory of this saint, then it will certainly be drowned out by cornflowers. This, apparently, is the same play on the consonance of words as the advice to collect on May 10, the day of Simon the Zealot, healing herbs- "potions" if you want them to have special healing power, look for treasures and sow wheat if they want it to be born like “gold”. There is a charming fable by Krylov “Cornflower”, in which the cornflower played a certain, although perhaps indirect, but still historical role. This fable is dedicated to Empress Maria Feodorovna and begins like this: “In the wilderness, a blossoming cornflower suddenly withered, withered halfway, and, bowing its head on its stem, sadly awaited its death...” They say that when in 1823 Krylov suffered such a strong apoplexy that those who watched His doctors despaired of his recovery, then Empress Maria Feodorovna, who always had a great affection for the famous fabulist, sent him a bouquet of flowers and moved him to her place in Pavlovsk to improve his health, saying: “Under my supervision, he will soon get better.” Such highest attention touched him so deeply (Krylov was already 55 years old at that time) that when he subsequently truly recovered completely, the first fable he wrote after a serious illness was the fable “Cornflower,” in which, expressing his gratitude, he depicted the Empress as the sun, and himself - in the form of a cornflower, a simple wild flower, which is not worthy, as the beetle expresses it in the fable, to be warmed by the sun. But nevertheless, he exclaims with delight in conclusion: “... The sun rose, illuminated nature, scattered rays throughout the kingdom of the florin, and revived the poor cornflower, withered in the night, with a heavenly gaze.” As for the Empress’s bouquet, Krylov carefully dried it, admired it often and bequeathed that when he died, this bouquet should be placed in his coffin and buried with him, which, as they say, was exactly done. This bouquet, according to some, was all wildflowers, and according to others - from greenhouses, but there were several cornflowers in it, which, as it were, gave Krylov the idea to write the fable “Cornflower” and portray himself under the name of this modest wildflower. Cornflower was brought to us along with rye and has always been a constant companion of the rye field. True, now, while fighting weeds, we do not allow these flowers into the fields. Meanwhile, science has proven: if you add one cornflower seed to one hundred rye seeds, the rye will grow better. However a large number of cornflower seeds can inhibit cereals. People have long revered the bright blue flower with jagged edges. The image of cornflower is a favorite decorative element of weavers and embroiderers. He is sung in many Russian, Belarusian and Ukrainian songs. Cornflower came to us from ancient times. During excavations of Tutankhamun's tomb, many objects made of precious stones and gold were found. But a small wreath of cornflowers found in the sarcophagus shocked archaeologists. The flowers dried out, but retained their color and shape. Perhaps these were the favorite flowers of the pharaoh and the grieving wife brought them to her deceased husband. Cornflower is not only a constant companion of rye and wheat, it has also adapted to ripen simultaneously with them, and it is incredibly difficult to sift its seeds from cereal grains. Every spring, it again falls into the arable land with cereal grains, and by autumn it sways merrily in the golden ocean of grain. In Ukrainian calendar celebrations and in some rituals, the flowers of the mint-leaved basil are widely used, as cornflowers are called there. Basil - cornflower grows wild in subtropical and tropical countries, in Ukraine, Moldova, Romania, Greece, Bulgaria. It is specially bred in vegetable gardens and orchards because, when dried, it emits a strong spicy odor and was used as an incense fumigator in Ukraine on traditional calendar holidays. In former times, ritual wreaths were woven from its stems. Basil also appears in summer Kupala poetry. N. Kostomarov, based on Ukrainian folk literature, interpreted basil as a symbol of “loving friendliness.” Not far from the entrance to Volgograd, on the site of former fierce battles, an unusual monument was erected (does it exist now?): a girl with cornflowers in her hands bent over a soldier’s letter-triangle, on which are engraved the words of Guard Major D. Petrakov’s daughter Mila: “There is a battle going on, Enemy shells are exploding all around... And a flower grows here... Another explosion... The cornflower is torn off. I picked it up and put it in my tunic pocket. The flower grew and reached towards the sun, but it was torn off by the blast wave, and if I had not picked it up, it would have been trampled. Sweet! Papa Dima will fight until the last drop of blood, until the last breath, so that the Nazis do not treat you like this flower.” Cornflowers, cornflowers, and cornflowers look at us with blue eyes, either from ears of rye or wheat, or splashing like lakes on the silk carpets of lawns, or pleasing the eye in the flower beds, emphasizing the variety of colors of the plants on the lawns. However, the blue-eyed beauty does not always have blue flowers. There are about seven hundred species of cornflowers in the world flora, among which there are cornflowers with pink, purple, purple, white and even yellow flowers. But no matter what the color and smell of cornflowers, they are always attractive and loved. And that is why they are a popular element of ornament in folk embroidery, where craftswomen depict them together with ears of rye. Villagers who have left the village for one reason or another find it very difficult to bear separation from nature. This sadness was perfectly expressed in the poem “The Weavers of Slutsk” by the Belarusian poet Maxim Bogdanovich: ... And thoughts rush to the expanse “Where the shoots are green, Where the cornflowers bloom, Where the waters sparkle like silver Between the mountains of the broken river, Where the edge of the gray forest is visible ... And now, having forgotten, the hand weaves Instead of the Persian pattern, the pattern of the native cornflower. Many artists have dedicated their paintings to cornflowers. Suffice it to recall Igor Grabar’s canvas “Cornflowers,” where, against the backdrop of a hot afternoon, two friends remember their youth in front of a huge armful of cornflowers. cornflower has its own secrets and one of them is the spread of its seeds. They crawl. At the top of the smooth, very shiny cornflower achene, which resembles a rye grain in shape, there is a small tuft of white hairs. To an ignorant person it may seem that the tuft serves as a parachute for the flight of the seed , like a dandelion. But this is not so. The cornflower crest is the main organ of movement of the achenes, with its help they “crawl". When wet, it contracts, and when dry, it lengthens. The hairs of the tuft have serrations directed in one direction, with which they rest against uneven soil. When the cornflowers contract or lengthen, the achene moves.
The most common in Russia are meadow cornflower and blue cornflower.
Meadow cornflower grows in the European part of the country and in Altai in meadows, forest clearings, and among shrubs.
The stem of this perennial rough plant is straight, ribbed, reaches a height of 30-80 cm. Purple-lilac or blue flowers collected in baskets.
Cornflower blooms in June-July. The fruits are about 3 mm long. Fallen seeds germinate immediately, but the plant develops slowly. It takes several years until it blooms for the first time.
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Bees fly to purple flowers meadow cornflower from June to September for honey. The honey is light yellow and tastes very pleasant. Meadow cornflower is a good forage plant. When there are a lot of cornflowers in the meadow, the hay is considered very nutritious.
The plant is a perennial. Hidden in the ground is a rhizome from which new flowers rise and bloom every spring.
Blue cornflower grows almost throughout the country in spring and winter crops, along roads, near housing. Golden rye is earing in the field. The wind blew, bent the ears of corn to the ground, and the heads of cornflowers were immediately visible in the rye. Cornflower is good for both a wreath and a bouquet. But grain growers consider this plant a weed. It interferes with the plants that are sown in the field - it takes away their nutrition and moisture, and when it grows very strongly, it blocks the light for them.
Cornflower and rye are inseparable. The thing is that cornflower was originally brought to us along with rye from the western part of Asia adjacent to Russia. That is why cornflower, like rye, was not known to either the Egyptians or the ancient Greeks.
The Russian name of the flower comes from the name of the daring guy Vasil. According to legend, the only son of a poor woman was bewitched by a mermaid: carried away by her in a field, he turned into a blue flower resembling an icy pool.
The flowers can be used to obtain blue and blue dyes (for woolen fabrics), as well as to make cornflower blue vinegar.