the White with Yellow Falls, the Straw color, the Spanish Yellow, the Purple and Yellow, the Purple or Murrey, the Great Turkie, the Common Purple, the Great Dalmatian, the Yellow of Tripoli, the Double Blew, the Double Purple, the Purple Dwarf," and many others which prove how popular this flower was in Tudor and Stuart gardens, and what splendid specimens were known to the people of Shakespearian times. Parkinson also adds: "The dried root called Orris is of much use to make sweet powders, or other things, to perfume apparel or linen." The fleur-de-lis early became the symbol of France. At the proclamation of a new king the Franks always placed a living flower, or flag, as it was called, in his hand as the symbol of power. Because his wife, St. Clotilde, had a vision of the iris, Clovis erased the three frogs on his shield and substituted the iris. In consequence also of a dream, Louis VII took the iris for his device in 1137, from which it became known as the fleur de Louis, later contracted into fleur-de-lys and fleur-de-lis. When Edward III claimed the crown of France in 1340, he quartered the Old French shield bearing the fleur-de-lis with his English lion. The iris, or flower-de-luce (as the English wrote it), did not disappear from the English coat of arms until 1801. Shakespeare speaks of the fleur-de-lis in the _Messenger's_ speech in "King Henry VI":[53] Awake, awake, English nobility! Let not sloth dim your honors new begot: Cropp'd are the flower-de-luces in your arms; Of England's coat one half is cut away. And again in the same play:[54] LA PUCELLE. I am prepared: here is my keen-edged sword, Deck'd with fine flower-de-luces on each side. In "The Merry Wives of Windsor"[55] there is a humorous play upon words regarding the heraldic use of "the flower-de-luce." [53] Part I, Act I, Scene I. [54] Part I, Act I, Scene II. [55] Act I, Scene I. IV _Fern and Honeysuckle_