Bot. Also 6–7 asphodill. [ad. L. asphodil-us, asphodel-us, a. Gr. ἀσφόδελ-ος, of unkn. origin. The earlier form (ad. med.L. affodillus) was AFFODIL, q.v., whence DAFFODIL.]
1. A genus of liliaceous plants with very handsome flowers, mostly natives of the south of Europe. The White Asphodel or King’s Spear covers large tracts of land in Apulia, where its leaves afford good nourishment to sheep. From the genus the order has sometimes been called Asphodeleæ.
[1578. Lyte, Dodoens, 649. This herbe is called in Greke ἀσφόδελος; in shops Affodilus … in English also Affodyl and Daffodyll.]
1597. Gerard, Herbal, 85. To shew vnto you the sundry sorts of asphodils … Dioscorides maketh mention but of one asphodill: but Plinie setteth downe two.
1601. Holland, Pliny, II. 128. Asphodel hath a property to chase away mice and rats.
1611. Cotgr., Asphodile [Fr.], The Daffadill, Affodill, or Asphodill flower; also the root or bulbes thereof.
1712. trans. Pomet’s Hist. Drugs, I. 39. The Root is like the Asphodel, and yields … Salt and Oil.
1859. Rawlinson, Herodotus, IV. cxc. III. 169. Dwellings … made of the stems of the asphodel, and of rushes, wattled together.
1877. Mrs. King, Discip., Ugo Bassi, I. 51. The moonlight spires Of asphodel rose out of glossy tufts In straight white armies.
b. By the poets made an immortal flower, and said to cover the Elysian meads. (Cf. Homer, Odyss., XI. 539 Ἀσφοδελὸς λειμών.)
1634. Milton, Comus, 838. To embathe In nectared lavers strewed with asphodel.
1658. Sir T. Browne, Hydriot., 37. The dead are made to eat Asphodels about the Elysian meadows.
1713. Pope, St. Cecilia’s Day, 74. Happy souls who dwell In yellow meads of asphodel Or amaranthine bowers.
a. 1842. Tennyson, Lotos-Eaters, 170. Others in Elysian valleys dwell, Resting weary limbs at last on beds of asphodel.
1858. Longf., Poems, 90. He who wore the crown of asphodels, Descending, at my door began to knock.
c. attrib. (sometimes = ‘Elysian.’)
1831. Carlyle, Sart. Res., I. xi. Is that a real Elysian brightness … Is it of a truth leading us into beatific Asphodel meadows?
1847. Longf., Ev., II. iv. 149. Hereafter crown us with asphodel flowers.
1857. Ruskin, Pol. Econ. Art, 37. In their race thro’ the asphodel meadows of their youth.
2. With qualifications, popularly applied to several other plants:
a. Bog, English, or Lancashire Asphodel (Narthecium Ossifragum), common on moorlands in Britain. † b. Bulbous Asphodel, a species of Ornithogalum or ‘Star of Bethlehem’ (O. pyrenaicum). Obs. c. False Asphodel, in America, a species of Tofieldia. d. Scotch Asphodel (Tofieldia palustris), a British subalpine plant.
1599. Gerard, Cat., Asphodelus Lancastriensis, Lancashire Asphodill. A. bulbosus, Bulbous Asphodill.
1834. Mary Howitt, Flower-Less., in Sk. Nat. Hist. (1851), 195. The English asphodel: In the turfy bogs ye found it.
1863. Baring-Gould, Iceland, 190. In swampy spots clustered the white heads of the mountain asphodel.
