virgin's bower
[virgin n. 12.]
The British climbing shrub Clematis Vitalba, traveller's joy.
| 1597 Gerarde Herbal ii. cccxiii. 741 Vpright Clamberer or Virgins Bower, is also a kinde of Clematis. 1688 Holme Armoury ii. 68/2 The Virgins Bower groweth like the Honysuckle. 1796 Withering Brit. Plants (ed. 3) II. 500 Traveller's-joy. Great Wild Climber. Virgin's Bower. 1818 Keats Endym. ii. 417 Virgin's bower, trailing airily. 1842 Florist's Jrnl. (1846) III. 36 The twisting or bending back of the petioles over any horizontal body,..as in the Virgin's bower. 1870 Morris Earthly Par. III. iv. 261 And woodbine, and the odorous virgin's-bower, Hung in great heaps about that undyked tower. |
b. Applied to other species of Clematis, esp. to the American species C. virginiana, or employed as book-name for the whole genus.
| 1668 Wilkins Real Char. ii. iv. §6. 111 Clematis, Virgins⁓bower. 1753 Chambers' Cycl. Suppl., Virgins Bower,..in botany, the name of a genus of plants;..The flower is of the rosaceous kind. 1760 J. Lee Introd. Bot. App. 331 Virgin's Bower, Clematis. 1771 J. R. Forster Flora Amer. Septentr. 25 Clematis viorna. Virgin's bower, violet. Virg. Car. 1845–50 A. H. Lincoln Lect. Bot. 65 One of our most beautiful climbing plants is the Clematis virginica, or virgin's bower. 1856 Delamer Fl. Garden (1861) 158 Virgin's Bower—Clematis montana, Viticella, and its varieties, are hardy climbers, pretty when trained over lattice-work. 1866 Whittier Maids of Attitash 15 Hardhack, and virgin's-bower, And white-spiked clethra⁓flower. 1880 Bessey Bot. 564 Clematis, the Virgin's Bower, of many species. |
c. With distinguishing terms.
| 1704 Dict. Rust. (1726) s.v., The Purple Virgin's-Bower... The Double-purple Virgin's-Bower. 1707 Mortimer Husb. (1721) II. 190 Double Virgin Bower is a climbing Tree, fit to cover some place of Repose. 1731 Miller Gard. Dict. s.v. Clematitis, Purple creeping Climber, or Single Virgins Bower. Ibid., Blue Climber with a double Flower, or Double Virgins Bower. 1822 Hortus Anglicus II. 39 Clematis Cirrhosa. Evergreen Virgin's Bower. 1862 Chambers's Encycl. III. 73/2 Clematis flammula, a native of the south of Europe and north of Africa,..is the species known as Sweet Virgin's Bower. |