Sapphires in the cereal
Jul 20, 2022
3 minutes
THE cornflower deserves greater regard than it usually receives. A native of the Old World, at least since the Iron Age, it was valued down the centuries. In pharaonic Egypt, it symbolised resurrection and the belief that deceased potentates would return seasonally as the fertility god Osiris to sprout with the next corn crop; a garland of cornflowers around the neck of the mummified Tutankhamun had lost little of its hue in 3,000 years.
Ancient Greece recognised its medicinal value, attributing this discovery to Chiron: the mythological; its species designation is, the Greek for dark blue.
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