windflower

Etymology

wind + flower

noun

1. An early spring flowering species of the family Ranunculaceae (Anemone nemorosa).
   Herba venti, Anemone. Wind flower, the juyce snuffed up the nose purgeth the head, it cleanseth filthy ulcers, encreaseth milk in nurses, and outwardly by ointment helps Leprosyes. 1649, Nicholas Culpeper, A physicall directory, or, A translation of the London dispensatory made by the Colledge of Physicians in London, London: Peter Cole, page 40
   When windflowers blossom on the sea And fishes skim along the plain, Then we who part this weary day, Then you and I shall meet again. 1881, Christina Rossetti, “One Foot on the Sea, and One on Shore”, in A Pageant and Other Poems, London: Macmillan, page 95
   “[…] We spent an hour in a hazel copse, picking primroses and looking at the little white windflowers. One doesn’t pick the windflowers,” he explained, “because in an hour they’re withered. […]” 1963, Aldous Huxley, chapter 7, in Island, New York: Bantam, page 101