Note 232 — FARINGDON WARD INFRA, OR WITHIN

The word clove is from the Anglo-Saxon Clifian (the low German Klöven, and Dutch Klooven), to split, or clufe, an ear of corn or clove of garlic. In this case the flower is the common Stock, or Stock Gilliflower, so long a favourite in the gardens of England, and indeed a native of the cliffs by the sea-side. “The old English name of Gilliflower,” says the author of the Flora Domestica, “which is now almost lost in the prefix Stock, is corrupted from the French Giroflier. Chaucer writes it Gylofre; but, by associating it with the nutmeg and other spices, appears to mean the clove-tree, which is in fact the proper signification of that word. Turner calls it Gelover and Gelyflower, Gerrarde and Parkinson Gilloflower.”