---
slug: the-language-of-flowers
passed: 2026-11-07
by: claude-tender-pascal-scb7wp, one independent agent on oversight/claims-pass.md that did not write the page, checking the page at commit 039e31f003 (resumed once after a container restart); every finding re-read at its source by the author before fixing; and for the six plates added later the same day, a second agent on the same brief, scoped to the plates, reading the page at commit 314a2a842b; every finding re-read at its source by the author before fixing
checked: 131
confirmed: 108
wrong: 12
unverifiable: 0
observed: 11
stale: 0
---
The agent read the served files in the repository (the page was not yet deployed), ran the verifier from the
repository root (23,220 passed, 0 failed; with --mutate 1,332,146 / 0) and from an empty folder with AW_DIR set to a
copy of the page folder (23,177 / 0), and changed figures in sentences only, in a copy, to see the verifier fail (a
dek count, a stray digit, "three reprints", "thirty from each book": each failed). It ran
`node assay/sources.mjs the-language-of-flowers --online` (12 FOUND, 36 NOT FOUND, 1 PARTIAL, 1 UNREADABLE); every
NOT FOUND was an Internet Archive viewer page with no text, so it opened the page images instead, and it fetched
the florist's blog with a browser user agent. It took the 68 entries of assay/sources/the-language-of-flowers.json
(as they stood) to their sources and added 23 claims the record left out. Its summary counted 75 confirmed and 7
observed; the lines below, one per claim, count 73 and 9, and one near-miss it confirmed with a note (the uneven
brackets in the books list) is counted here as wrong, as its own findings list does.

THE PLATES (added the same day, after the page had shipped). A second agent on the same brief was given only the
seven figures (every caption and every alt text), the 28 "plate-" entries of the source record, plates.sh and the
kept transcription of the leaves. It read each caption and alt text against the full-size Internet Archive leaf
images, cropped and zoomed, and each rights statement against the live catalogue records, which match the kept
copies. It ran the verifier (23,262 passed, 0 failed; with --mutate 1,371,546 / 0) and plates.sh (every scan the same
by sha256, every rebuilt picture byte-identical to the published one), and planted errors in a copy of the page
folder: a wrong leaf, a wrong year and a wrong bracketed year each failed; a year moved to the other book of the pair,
a plate moved to another leaf everywhere at once, the Phillips plate put in another entry, two of its emblems swapped
and a number in an alt text did not. Those five are now caught (23,301 / 0; --mutate 1,433,400 / 0). For the plate
entries `node assay/sources.mjs the-language-of-flowers --online` said NOT FOUND for the 18 excerpts read off page
images, where it could not have seen the words (the archive's viewer page has no text); the agent read each leaf in
the image instead. Its 40 lines are below the first pass's, under their own heading: 35 confirmed, 3 wrong (all
MINOR), 2 observed.

## Claims
- WRONG | [wirt-author] "Elizabeth Wirt, whose Flora’s Dictionary came out in Baltimore in 1832" | research/the-language-of-flowers/sources/loy-spread-of-flower-symbolism.txt; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Wirt; https://archive.org/download/florasdictionary00wirtrich/page/n15_w1200.jpg | attribution right; first printed 1829 (Loy citing Seaton; Wikipedia); this copy's verso "Entered ... in the year 1831", engraved title MDCCCXXXII
- CONFIRMED | [wirt-own] "admitted that most of its meanings were her own, supplied because so few had come from the East" | https://archive.org/details/florasdictionary00wirtrich/page/n16/mode/1up | "Very few of their emblems have reached us ... To supply the residue, which constitutes the far greater number"
- CONFIRMED | [wirt-arbitrary] "defended the few she had simply made up the way one would defend words" | https://archive.org/download/florasdictionary00wirtrich/page/n17_w1200.jpg | "A few, and but a few of them have been arbitrarily assumed ... it applies with equal force to spoken language"
- CONFIRMED | [wirt-understood] "all that is necessary being, that the purpose of the sign be understood in the same way by all who use it." | https://archive.org/download/florasdictionary00wirtrich/page/n17_w1200.jpg | verbatim on leaf 17 (image viewed)
- OBSERVED | [transcribed] "transcribed exactly as printed, misprints and all" | research/the-language-of-flowers/BRIEF-transcribe.md; public/strata/the-language-of-flowers/audit.json | the brief requires letters as printed; blind audit of 840 rows: 624 identical, 214 punctuation only, 2 letter differences, both the transcription's reading
- CONFIRMED | [delachenaye-lists] "had found lists of meanings going round, copied by hand and then printed, and did not trust them" | https://archive.org/details/abeyceydairedef00dela/page/n171/mode/1up | "Ces listes, d’abord écrites à la main ... se propagent déja par l’impression; mais la différence ..." (IA OCR rows, leaves 171-172)
- CONFIRMED | [delachenaye-quote] "mais la différence qu’on observe ... ne proviennent pas d’une véritable source" | https://archive.org/details/abeyceydairedef00dela/page/n172/mode/1up | verbatim, pp. 136-137; the translation is fair
- CONFIRMED | [delachenaye-three] "he took three lists, and where two agreed against the third, he printed the two" | https://archive.org/details/abeyceydairedef00dela/page/n180/mode/1up | "nous avons réuni trois listes ... celles-ci se sont trouvées conformes, on a cru devoir adopter cette dernière signification" (pp. 145-146)
- CONFIRMED | [seaton-single] "was not a single and universally understood correlation of flowers to meanings" | https://upress.virginia.edu/title/2776/ | publisher's summary, verbatim; cut before "that men and women used to communicate in matters of love and romance" (fair)
- CONFIRMED | [seaton-differs] "The language differs from book to book, country to country." | https://upress.virginia.edu/title/2776/ | verbatim
- CONFIRMED | [loy-seventeen] "gathered the meanings of seventeen books printed across the century" | https://www.literarycalligraphy.com/flowers/spread_of_language_of_flowers.htm | "aggregates the lexicons of 17 language of flowers books, published 1819-1891"
- CONFIRMED | [loy-rare] "it is rare when a majority agreed on one meaning" | https://www.literarycalligraphy.com/flowers/spread_of_language_of_flowers.htm | verbatim
- CONFIRMED | [loy-overlap] "Overlap existed among the dictionaries because the writers copied each other." | https://www.literarycalligraphy.com/flowers/spread_of_language_of_flowers.htm | verbatim
- CONFIRMED | [shoberl-french] London 1834 "says it is “founded on the French”" | https://archive.org/details/languageflowers01cortgoog/page/n17/mode/1up | "this work is founded on the French" (Preface p. xii)
- CONFIRMED | [sentiment-latour] "adopted “the system of Madame de la Tour”" | https://archive.org/details/sentimentflower00/page/n13/mode/1up | "though the system of Madame de la Tour has been adopted"
- CONFIRMED | [sentiment-origin] "had its origin in that celebrated publication, “Le Langage des Fleurs;”" | https://archive.org/details/sentimentflower00/page/n13/mode/1up | verbatim
- CONFIRMED | [ash-london] "calls itself a reprint of “the last London edition”" | https://archive.org/download/languageflowers00q/page/n10_w1200.jpg | title page "From the last London Edition" (image viewed)
- CONFIRMED | [hale-nothing-new] "There is nothing new attempted, except in the arrangement, and the introduction of American sentiments" | https://archive.org/details/florasinterprete1832hale/page/n10/mode/1up | verbatim, Introduction p. iii
- CONFIRMED | [hale-named-wirt] "She named Wirt’s book as a source" | https://archive.org/details/florasinterprete1832hale/page/n11/mode/1up | "I must not, however, omit to name “Flora’s Dictionary,” ... I have derived considerable assistance from these compilations"
- CONFIRMED | [hale-dinner] "Making a book (not writing it) is somewhat like preparing a dinner ..." | https://archive.org/details/florasinterprete1832hale/page/n11/mode/1up | verbatim
- CONFIRMED | [ingram-gallic] many recent English and American vocabularies "have been simply word-for-word translations from the works of our Gallic neighbours" | https://archive.org/details/florasymbolica00ingr/page/n32/mode/1up | "Many of the pretty little floral vocabularies ... during the last few years in England and America have been simply word-for-word translations" (p. 17)
- CONFIRMED | [reid-pera] "signed his preface at Pera of Constantinople" | https://archive.org/download/languageflowers00reid/page/n13_w1200.jpg | dateline "PERA OF CONSTANTINOPLE, The 10th day of the Month Moharem, in the 1255th year of the Hegira." (image; a dateline, no name)
- CONFIRMED | [reid-march-1839] "in March 1839 and published it in Glasgow in 1847" | research/the-language-of-flowers/tools/hijri.mjs (recreated: node research/the-language-of-flowers/tools/hijri.mjs 1255 1 10) | gives 1839-03-26 and an independent tabular formula agrees; title page "GLASGOW ... MDCCCXLVII"
- CONFIRMED | [reid-certain] "certain that we are more indebted to the Occidentals than the Orientals for the contents of the present volume" | https://archive.org/download/languageflowers00reid/page/n13_w1200.jpg | verbatim (image)
- CONFIRMED | [reid-italics] printed two meanings, the second in italics, wherever "the European and American sentiments attached to a flower disagree" | https://archive.org/details/languageflowers00reid/page/n17/mode/1up | "When the European and American sentiments ... disagree, the American sentiment is printed in italics, and follows the European one."
- CONFIRMED | [osborn-society] "compiled by a society of ladies and gentlemen for their own amusement" | https://archive.org/details/mobot31753000460664/page/n3/mode/1up | verbatim, Preface p. iv
- CONFIRMED | [osborn-copied] "most of the emblems have been copied from “Flora’s Dictionary.”" | https://archive.org/details/mobot31753000460664/page/n3/mode/1up | verbatim
- CONFIRMED | [wirt-boston] an earlier sketch that "found its way to the press in Boston" | https://archive.org/details/florasdictionary00wirtrich/page/n17/mode/1up | "one of these, in the course of last year, found its way to the press in Boston"
- CONFIRMED | [austurtium-ash] the Philadelphia book of 1836 lists "Austurtium (Scarlet)", meaning Splendour | public/strata/the-language-of-flowers/data.json (tx/ash-1836.json) | "Austurtium (Scarlet)" "Splendour", leaf 43, p. 36
- CONFIRMED | [austurtium-books] "filed under A in eight of these books, from Philadelphia in 1836 to Greenaway’s in 1884" | public/strata/the-language-of-flowers/data.json (recreated with the agent's scratch script facts.mjs) | Ash, Nelson, Reid, Burke 1858, Valentine, Burke 1867, Ingram, Greenaway; all "Splendour", all on A leaves, all on one branch
- CONFIRMED | [rudbeakia] "Rudbeakia from Philadelphia through Nelson and Reid" | public/strata/the-language-of-flowers/data.json (recreated with facts.mjs) | printed only by Ash 1836, Nelson 1846 and Reid 1847
- CONFIRMED | [hammer-fame] "C’est à lady Montague que ce langage doit sa célébrité en Europe" | https://archive.org/download/bub_gb_oigwAAAAYAAJ/page/n52_w1200.jpg | verbatim, p. 32 (image)
- CONFIRMED | [hammer-who] "the orientalist Joseph von Hammer in Vienna in 1809, in the journal he edited" | https://archive.org/download/bub_gb_oigwAAAAYAAJ/page/n9_w1200.jpg; https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/1911_Encyclop%C3%A6dia_Britannica/Hammer-Purgstall,_Joseph,_Freiherr_von | title page "WIEN, 1809"; signed "Hammer." on p. 42; EB1911 "Fundgruben des Orients, which he edited"
- CONFIRMED | [hammer-before] "though other travellers had mentioned it before her" | https://archive.org/download/bub_gb_oigwAAAAYAAJ/page/n52_w1200.jpg | "D'autres voyageurs en avoient parlé avant elle"
- CONFIRMED | [montagu-heading] headed "Pera, March 16, O. S." | https://archive.org/download/bim_eighteenth-century_letters-of-the-right-hon_montagu-mary-wortley-l_1763_3_0/page/n2_w1200.jpg | "LETTER XL. To the Lady ——. Pera, March 16, O. S.", vol. III p. [1]
- CONFIRMED | [montagu-1763] "printed in 1763" | https://archive.org/download/bim_eighteenth-century_letters-of-the-right-hon_montagu-mary-wortley-l_1763_3_0/page/n0_w1200.jpg | title page "VOL. III ... T. BECKET and P. A. DE HONDT ... MDCCLXIII"
- CONFIRMED | [montagu-things] "a Turkish love letter made of things, most of them not flowers at all (soap, coal, a straw, a match, gold wire, pepper)" | https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/17520/pg17520.txt | 17 objects, of which only the jonquil, the rose and perhaps the clove are flowers; all six named objects are listed
- CONFIRMED | [montagu-verse-1] "You see this letter is all in verse ... designed for this use." | https://archive.org/download/bim_eighteenth-century_letters-of-the-right-hon_montagu-mary-wortley-l_1763_3_0/page/n5_w1200.jpg | verbatim, p. [4]; the blotted mark after "them" may be ";" (trivial)
- CONFIRMED | [montagu-verse-2] "There is no colour, no flower ... without ever inking your fingers." | https://archive.org/download/bim_eighteenth-century_letters-of-the-right-hon_montagu-mary-wortley-l_1763_3_0/page/n6_w1200.jpg | verbatim, pp. [4]-[5]
- CONFIRMED | [montagu-pear] Her pear says "Give me some hope." | https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/17520/pg17520.txt | the 1790 Martin edition, line 4243: "_Pear_, _Give me some hope._"
- CONFIRMED | [hammer-constantinople] "Hammer, who had lived several years in Constantinople" | https://archive.org/download/bub_gb_oigwAAAAYAAJ/page/n55_w1200.jpg | "pendant un séjour de plusieurs années à Constantinople"; EB1911: at the embassy 1799-1807
- CONFIRMED | [hammer-rhyme] "chose a word that rhymes with a thing’s name, and built a sentence ending on the rhyme" | https://archive.org/download/bub_gb_oigwAAAAYAAJ/page/n55_w1200.jpg | "saisir des mots qui riment aux noms ... des propositions entières finissant par la rime donnée"
- CONFIRMED | [hammer-pear] "A pear is armoude ... Ver bana bir omoude ... because omoude rhymes with it" | https://archive.org/download/bub_gb_oigwAAAAYAAJ/page/n55_w1200.jpg | "Armoude veut dire: Ver bana bir omoude: c'est-à-dire, poire: donnez-moi de l'espoir"
- CONFIRMED | [hammer-hundred] "not much more than a hundred signs and phrases" | https://archive.org/download/bub_gb_oigwAAAAYAAJ/page/n55_w1200.jpg | "ne va pas beaucoup au-delà d'une centaine de signes et de phrases reçues"
- CONFIRMED | [hammer-no-dictionary] "Nous n’en connoissons point de fait, et nous doutons fort qu’il en existe" | https://archive.org/download/bub_gb_oigwAAAAYAAJ/page/n55_w1200.jpg | verbatim; but he then prints his own "Dictionnaire du langage des fleurs", pp. 36-42 (see the rhyme line)
- CONFIRMED | [pear-no-hope] "ten of the books here list the pear tree or its blossom ... “Affection”, “Comfort” or “Health”; not one gives it hope" | public/strata/the-language-of-flowers/data.json (recreated with facts.mjs) | Nelson, Reid, Burke 1858, Burke 1867, Valentine, Ingram, Greenaway, Beecham, Mazawattee, New York 1834; none says hope
- CONFIRMED | [greenaway-title] "illustrated by Kate Greenaway, printed in colours by Edmund Evans" | https://archive.org/download/languageflowers00gree/page/n8_w1200.jpg | title page verbatim (image)
- CONFIRMED | [greenaway-bhl] "Public domain. The BHL considers that this work is no longer under copyright protection." | https://archive.org/metadata/languageflowers00gree/metadata | possible-copyright-status verbatim; sponsor Biodiversity Heritage Library
- CONFIRMED | [almanac-victorian] "reflects mainly Victorian flower language" | https://www.almanac.com/content/flower-meanings-language-flowers | "Our chart below reflects mainly Victorian flower language." (assay --online FOUND)
- CONFIRMED | [almanac-yellow] lists "Jealousy, Decrease of love, Infidelity" | https://www.almanac.com/content/flower-meanings-language-flowers | row "Rose, yellow": "Jealousy, Decrease of love, Infidelity"
- CONFIRMED | [farmgirl] a florist’s blog this year says yellow roses evolved "from jealousy and dying love in older flower dictionaries" | https://farmgirlflowers.com/blog/flower-meanings-language-of-flowers | HTTP 200 with a browser user agent; the sentence is present; datePublished 2026-08-28
- CONFIRMED | [wirt-yellow] Wirt has "The decrease of love, on better acquaintance" | public/strata/the-language-of-flowers/data.json (tx/wirt-1832.json) | leaf 206 "The decrease of love, on better acquaintance."
- CONFIRMED | [hale-yellow] "Hale has “Let us Forget”" | public/strata/the-language-of-flowers/data.json (tx/hale-1832.json) | "Let us Forget," leaf 225
- CONFIRMED | [burke-yellow] "Jealousy first appears with Mrs Burke (1858), as “Decrease of love. Jealousy.”" | public/strata/the-language-of-flowers/data.json (recreated with facts.mjs) | no earlier yellow rose has jealousy (Delachénaye and La Tour have "infidélité"); Burke 1858 leaf 59
- CONFIRMED | [greenaway-yellow] Greenaway (1884) as "Decrease of love. Jealously." | https://archive.org/download/languageflowers00gree/page/n40_w1200.jpg | p. 37 "Rose, Yellow . . Decrease of love. Jealously." (image; matches the self-hosted plate)
- OBSERVED | [method-ocr] "rebuilt into printed lines from the position of every word" | research/the-language-of-flowers/tools/rows.mjs | rebuilds rows from djvu word coordinates; the tx files record its use
- OBSERVED | [method-letter] "corrected letter by letter against the page images by AI helpers" | research/the-language-of-flowers/BRIEF-transcribe.md; research/the-language-of-flowers/tx/*.json (self_audit) | the brief and each book's self-audit (e.g. Wirt 15 of 15)
- OBSERVED | [audit-blind] "other AI helpers, who never saw the transcriptions, re-read a random sample" | research/the-language-of-flowers/audit/BRIEF.md; public/strata/the-language-of-flowers/audit.json | 840 rows, 30 per book, 56 page counts; rescored by the verifier: 624 / 214 / 2
- OBSERVED | [prereg] "were committed to the repository before any two books had been compared" | git log -- research/the-language-of-flowers; git show 0eaf206d34 | 0eaf206d34 (21:36:17 UTC) is the layer's first commit; first analysis 5f920e6274 (21:55:57); no tx/ before it; PREREGISTRATION.md holds the name rules, L1/L2/L3, the pooled headline, the nearest-relative rule and P1-P5
- CONFIRMED | [tyas-routledge] "the book Robert Tyas wrote for Routledge in 1869" | https://archive.org/metadata/languageofflower00tyas/metadata; research/the-language-of-flowers/tx/tyas-1869.json | "Robert Tyas, M.A., LL.D., F.R.B.S."; George Routledge and Sons; 1869
- CONFIRMED | [tyas-catalogue] "library catalogues name him as the author of the Sentiment of Flowers too" | https://archive.org/metadata/sentimentflower00tyas/metadata | creator "Tyas, Robert, 1811-1879"
- CONFIRMED | [tyas-rt] "whose preface is signed R. T." | https://archive.org/download/sentimentflower00/page/n14_w1200.jpg | "R. T." and "West Square, Sept. 1836." (image)
- CONFIRMED | [tyas-burke-routledge] "the Burke list Routledge was already printing" | research/the-language-of-flowers/tx/burke-1858.json; research/the-language-of-flowers/tx/burke-1867.json | "G. Routledge & Co." 1858; "George Routledge and Sons" 1867
- CONFIRMED | [ash-american] "its title page adds “the Emblems of American Flowers”" | https://archive.org/download/languageflowers00q/page/n10_w1200.jpg | "to which is added, the Emblems of American Flowers." (image)
- WRONG | [ash-hale-rare] "the 13 readings it shares with Hale’s Boston book and no other book here" | public/strata/the-language-of-flowers/data.json (recreated with the agent's scratch script ashhale.mjs) | 13 is right, but all 13 are also printed by Hale 1856, one of the 28 books (minor)
- OBSERVED | [sense-blind] "Two readers, AI helpers working blind (shown two meanings and nothing else, no flower and no book ...)" | research/the-language-of-flowers/sense/BRIEF.md; research/the-language-of-flowers/sense/reader-1.tsv; reader-2.tsv; public/strata/the-language-of-flowers/sense.json | the brief withholds flower and book; 150 fails-L2 items mixed with 150 L2-not-L1 decoys
- CONFIRMED | [sense-counts] "150 comparisons drawn at random from the 14,544 in which two books share no sentiment at all" | verify-the-language-of-flowers.mjs (recreated: node verify-the-language-of-flowers.mjs) | sense.json populations.failsL2 = 14,544 = headline n minus L2; the verifier passes
- CONFIRMED | [nightshade] "for nightshade, Burke’s list says Truth., and Ingram’s ... says Falsehood." | public/strata/the-language-of-flowers/data.json (tx/burke-1858.json leaf 49; tx/ingram-1869.json leaf 404) | "Nightshade" "Truth." and "Nightshade" "Falsehood"; Burke and Ingram agree on 577 of 624 = 92.5% (transcriptions; scans not viewed)
- WRONG | "A rhyme does not survive translation. Carry the pear into French or English and the hope falls out of it" (relates note: "reached Europe without it") | https://archive.org/download/bub_gb_oigwAAAAYAAJ/page/n55_w1200.jpg; https://archive.org/download/bub_gb_oigwAAAAYAAJ/page/n56_w1200.jpg | Hammer p. 35: "La traduction rend la rime ou l'assonance de l'original, là où elle se présentoit naturellement"; p. 36: "Poire. Donnez-moi de l'espoir." (rhyme and hope kept in 1809)
- WRONG | "Every figure on this page about agreement is computed in your browser from the same entries"; "recomputed in your browser from the entries themselves" | public/strata/the-language-of-flowers/app.mjs l.232 | `pooled(D.pairs, use)` adds up stored pair tallies; the matrix and tree read D.pairs and D.nearest; the prose figures are fixed at build time
- WRONG | "each spine coloured from a patch of its own cover in the scan" | research/the-language-of-flowers/books.json | London 1834: "no cover in the scan ...; a plain board colour" (the black Phillips and Adams covers are real)
- WRONG | "The Language of Flowers; with Illustrative Poetry (London: Saunders and Otley, 1834)" | https://archive.org/download/languageflowers01cortgoog/page/n8_w1200.jpg | title page reads only "THE LANGUAGE OF FLOWERS"; the transcriber's note says the phrase does not appear
- WRONG | "the decrease of love, alone or with something added, is in seven" | public/strata/the-language-of-flowers/data.json (tx/reid-1847.json) | Reid also prints "Rose, Yellow. (Yellow Sweet Briar.)" "Decrease of love.", so eight on the plain reading (minor)
- WRONG | "curl -O https://artwaste.land/checks/verify-the-language-of-flowers.mjs" (the program that "recomputes ... every number in the prose") | scripts/publish-checks.mjs (recreated: node scripts/publish-checks.mjs --check) | exit 1, "stale or missing: /checks/verify-the-language-of-flowers.mjs"; the copy predates the word-number checks of 039e31f003 (it still passes the page, 23,156 / 0)
- OBSERVED | "Run it with --mutate and it also plants wrong figures, a changed meaning, a dropped entry and a moved date in copies, and fails unless it catches each one" | recreated: node verify-the-language-of-flowers.mjs --mutate | 1,332,146 pass / 0 fail at 039e31f003; at 7b56946c5b and 9028927d02 the planted meaning (La Tour's printed "Oracle.") went uncaught; fixed in b5507396ef
- OBSERVED | "the two readers above are the only check on sense" | research/the-language-of-flowers/sense/; public/strata/the-language-of-flowers/sense.json | the readers are described above at 039e31f003; at 9028927d02 that paragraph was a bare "SENSE" placeholder (filled in 138e6b5bc7)
- CONFIRMED | "fails if any differs" (every number in the prose, words included) | verify-the-language-of-flowers.mjs (recreated: AW_DIR=<scratch copy> node verify-the-language-of-flowers.mjs, after sentence-only edits) | each of these fails: the dek count changed, a stray digit, "three reprints" changed to "five", "thirty from each book" changed to "forty"
- CONFIRMED | plate alt text "from Rose, Daily to Rye Grass ... a girl carrying a large bunch of yellow roses and a girl in green" | public/strata/the-language-of-flowers/greenaway-1884-p37.webp | the image shows exactly that
- CONFIRMED | "Madame Charlotte de Latour (the pen name of Louise Cortambert)" | https://catalogue.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cb113377858 | "Pseudonyme de Louise Delaistre, épouse Cortambert."
- CONFIRMED | "An owner’s inscription in this copy is dated 27 November 1824" | https://archive.org/download/langagedesfleur00lato/page/n6_w1200.jpg | "November 27th 1824" (the last digit is a handwritten 4)
- CONFIRMED | Wirt "named in later editions" | https://archive.org/metadata/florasdictionary00wirtrich/metadata | "Later editions have author statement: “By Mrs. E.W. Wirt.”"
- CONFIRMED | "The first of them, Delachénaye’s Abécédaire de Flore (Paris, 1811)" and "He then did, by hand" | research/the-language-of-flowers/tx/delachenaye-1811.json | the earliest of the 28; title page "Par B..... Delachénaye, Ex-militaire"
- CONFIRMED | "John Reid" and "Reid’s Glasgow lexicon (1847)" | https://archive.org/download/languageflowers00reid/page/n10_w1200.jpg | "BY JOHN REID ... A Lexicon of the Sentiments ... GLASGOW: JOHN MORRISON ... MDCCCXLVII"
- CONFIRMED | "20 of the 26 later books reach La Tour’s Paris book ... The exceptions are all American"; New York 1834 "21 of the 86"; Wirt and Hale "(44.1%)" | public/strata/the-language-of-flowers/data.json (recreated with facts.mjs) | the six exceptions are Wirt, Hale, New York 1834, Bouquet, Osgood and Hale 1856; Wirt and Hale reach at most 19.0% with any earlier book
- CONFIRMED | "Frog Optorys ... only in Nelson and Reid; and Hydranger ... in Wirt (1832) and again in Waterman (1840)"; Nelson lists it "correctly ... under N"; "It is not in Phillips" | public/strata/the-language-of-flowers/data.json (recreated with facts.mjs) | as stated; Nelson "Nasturtium, Scarlet" "Splendour"; Phillips "Scarlet Nasturtium"
- CONFIRMED | "Infidelity, in nine of them" and "every later book that prints it descends from hers" | public/strata/the-language-of-flowers/data.json (recreated with facts.mjs and node verify-the-language-of-flowers.mjs) | 9 core books (two through the French gloss); jealousy only in Burke 1858 and 1867, Valentine, Ingram, Seelye (via Valentine) and Greenaway
- CONFIRMED | "Distrust. and Suspicion. for lavender", "Cure for Heart-ache. and Cure for heartache.", "Excess is dangerous. and Marriage., for saffron"; Ingram's "92.5%" | public/strata/the-language-of-flowers/data.json; public/strata/the-language-of-flowers/sense.json | all printed as stated
- CONFIRMED | books list: places, publishers and years; "A year in square brackets is not printed on the title page" | research/the-language-of-flowers/tx/*.json (title-page fields) | all 28 agree, apart from the 1834 subtitle (above)
- WRONG | books list attributions: "Robert Tyas" (1841), "John S. Adams", "L. Valentine", and Mazawattee as publisher | research/the-language-of-flowers/tx/*.json (title-page fields); IA catalogue records | the attributions are right, but the title pages print "By the Editor of “Woodland Gleanings,”", "J. S. A.", "L. V." and no publisher; brackets were used unevenly (a near-miss, counted with the wrong)
- CONFIRMED | "the same Keble poem, the same columns, the same Shakespeare quotation" | research/the-language-of-flowers/tx/beecham-1887.json; research/the-language-of-flowers/tx/mazawattee-1890.json | both notes record the Keble verse and the FLOWERS/SENTIMENTS columns; the Arbor-Vitæ verse is signed Shakespeare only in Beecham
- OBSERVED | "The predictions, written down before the comparison" | git show 0eaf206d34:research/the-language-of-flowers/PREREGISTRATION.md | P1-P5 committed 21:36:17 UTC, before the first analysis 5f920e6274 (21:55:57); later departures listed in README deviations 1-11

### The plates (second pass, at commit 314a2a842b)
- CONFIRMED | [plate-phillips] "Hope separated from Love by Pride and Cruelty: a sentence in flowers" | https://archive.org/download/floralemblems00phil/page/n296.jpg | the engraved caption reads exactly "Hope separated from Love by Pride and Cruelty", with "Publish'd by Saunders & Otley, 50 Conduit St. 1825" below it
- CONFIRMED | [plate-phillips-cite] "a coloured plate in Henry Phillips’s Floral Emblems (London: Saunders and Otley, 1825)" | https://archive.org/download/floralemblems00phil/page/n10.jpg; https://archive.org/download/floralemblems00phil/page/n296.jpg | title page "FLORAL EMBLEMS. BY HENRY PHILLIPS ... LONDON: PRINTED FOR SAUNDERS AND OTLEY ... 1825."; the plate is hand-coloured
- CONFIRMED | [plate-phillips-bound] "bound into his entry for Pride" | https://archive.org/download/floralemblems00phil/page/n295.jpg; https://archive.org/download/floralemblems00phil/page/n297.jpg; https://archive.org/download/floralemblems00phil/page/n298.jpg | p. 246 (leaf 295) opens "PRIDE. AMARYLLIS.—Amaryllis."; leaf 297 is the plate's blank back; p. 247 (leaf 298) runs on: "This beautiful species of the lily tribe varies not more in its colours than pride does in its qualities."
- CONFIRMED | [plate-phillips-emblems] "In the book’s own dictionary, hawthorn is Hope, myrtle Love, the amaryllis Pride and the stinging nettle Cruelty" | https://archive.org/download/floralemblems00phil/page/n92_w1200.jpg; https://archive.org/download/floralemblems00phil/page/n145.jpg; https://archive.org/download/floralemblems00phil/page/n214.jpg; https://archive.org/download/floralemblems00phil/page/n251.jpg; https://archive.org/download/floralemblems00phil/page/n295.jpg | leaf 92 "DICTIONARY OF EMBLEMS."; p. 104 "CRUELTY. Stinging Nettle.—Urtica pilulifera."; p. 169 "HOPE. Hawthorn.—Cratægus."; p. 202 "LOVE. Myrtle.—Myrtus."; p. 246 "PRIDE. Amaryllis.—Amaryllis."; tx/phillips-1825.json agrees
- CONFIRMED | [plate-phillips-sides] "Hope stands on the left, Love on the right, and Pride and Cruelty between them" | https://archive.org/download/floralemblems00phil/page/n296.jpg | hawthorn on the left, myrtle on the right, the amaryllis in the middle with a rooted nettle before its stem; the alt text says the same; that the toothed plant with hanging tassels is the nettle rests on the plate's title and the book's key, which is how the caption puts it
- CONFIRMED | [plate-phillips-rights] "leaf 296, from the LuEsther T. Mertz Library of the New York Botanical Garden; the Internet Archive’s record marks it as not in copyright" | https://archive.org/metadata/floralemblems00phil/metadata | contributor "New York Botanical Garden, LuEsther T. Mertz Library"; "possible-copyright-status": "NOT_IN_COPYRIGHT"
- CONFIRMED | [plate-pair] "The same three plants, standing for beauty, friendship and love, in Paris by 1824 and in London in 1869." | https://archive.org/download/langagedesfleur00lato/page/n11.jpg; https://archive.org/download/languageofflower00tyas/page/n20.jpg | La Tour: "Rose. Lierre. Myrte." over "Beauté. Amitié constante. Amour."; Tyas: "PLATE I.—Rose—Ivy—Myrtle, emblematic of Beauty, Friendship, and Love . . . Frontispiece"; both pair ivy with friendship and myrtle with love
- CONFIRMED | [plate-latour] "Rose. Lierre. Myrte. over Beauté. Amitié constante. Amour." | https://archive.org/download/langagedesfleur00lato/page/n11.jpg | exact, in three oval cartouches with script beneath, then "à la beauté, à l'amitié, à l'amour."
- CONFIRMED | [plate-latour-date] "this copy was printed by 1824" | https://archive.org/download/langagedesfleur00lato/page/n6.jpg; research/the-language-of-flowers/tx/latour-nd.json | the inscription reads "November 27th 1824" (a cursive 4 with a crossbar); the engraved title, leaf 12, is undated
- CONFIRMED | [plate-latour-signed] "signed by Bessa, who painted it, and Victor, who engraved it" | https://archive.org/download/langagedesfleur00lato/page/n11.jpg | under the frame, "Bessa pinx.t" on the left and "Victor sc.t" on the right
- CONFIRMED | [plate-latour-rights] "leaf 11, from Cornell University Library by way of the Biodiversity Heritage Library, which states" | https://archive.org/metadata/langagedesfleur00lato/metadata | contributor "Cornell University Library"; collections cornell and biodiversity; curator biodiversitylibrary.org; the BHL statement exact
- CONFIRMED | [plate-tyas-front] "which names the rose, the myrtle and the ivy, and which its list of plates calls emblematic of Beauty, Friendship, and Love" | https://archive.org/download/languageofflower00tyas/page/n7.jpg; https://archive.org/download/languageofflower00tyas/page/n20.jpg | the plate's caption "The Rose __ The Myrtle __ The Ivy"; the list of plates, p. xiii, as quoted
- CONFIRMED | [plate-tyas-cite] "Right: the frontispiece of Robert Tyas’s book (London: George Routledge and Sons, 1869)" | https://archive.org/download/languageofflower00tyas/page/n10.jpg; https://archive.org/download/languageofflower00tyas/page/n20.jpg | title page "BY ROBERT TYAS ... LONDON: GEORGE ROUTLEDGE AND SONS ... 1869."; the list calls Plate I the "Frontispiece"
- CONFIRMED | [plate-tyas-rights] "leaf 7, from the LuEsther T. Mertz Library of the New York Botanical Garden; the Internet Archive’s record marks it as not in copyright" | https://archive.org/metadata/languageofflower00tyas/metadata | contributor New York Botanical Garden, LuEsther T. Mertz Library; NOT_IN_COPYRIGHT
- CONFIRMED | [plate-ingram-cite] "The added title page of John Ingram’s Flora Symbolica (London: Frederick Warne, [1869])" | https://archive.org/download/florasymbolica00ingr/page/n6.jpg; https://archive.org/download/florasymbolica00ingr/page/n8.jpg; https://archive.org/metadata/florasymbolica00ingr/metadata | the record: "copy-specific-information": "Added t.p. in colors."; the printed title page, "BY JOHN INGRAM ... LONDON: FREDERICK WARNE AND CO.", is undated; the catalogue date is 1869
- CONFIRMED | [plate-ingram-line] "one of the three books in which Burke’s list runs on nearly unchanged" | research/the-language-of-flowers/out/analysis.json | apart from its own 1867 edition, Burke 1858 agrees at 90% or more with exactly three books: Greenaway 660/666 (99.1%), Valentine 609/642 (94.9%) and Ingram 577/624 (92.5%); the next is Reid at 65.1%
- CONFIRMED | [plate-ingram-terry] "It is signed by Terry at the foot of its frame, and the printed title page says the illustrations are printed in colours by Terry" | https://archive.org/download/florasymbolica00ingr/page/n6.jpg; https://archive.org/download/florasymbolica00ingr/page/n8.jpg | "Chas Terry" in red just below the frame's lower-left corner, still visible in the published crop; "WITH ORIGINAL ILLUSTRATIONS, PRINTED IN COLOURS BY TERRY."
- CONFIRMED | [plate-ingram-rights] "leaf 6, from Cornell University Library by way of the Biodiversity Heritage Library, which states" | https://archive.org/metadata/florasymbolica00ingr/metadata | contributor Cornell University Library; collections cornell and biodiversity; the BHL statement exact
- CONFIRMED | [plate-tyas-v] "Plate V of Tyas’s book (London: George Routledge and Sons, 1869) names its flowers as blue bottle, dog rose and Garden Anemone" | https://archive.org/download/languageofflower00tyas/page/n115.jpg; https://archive.org/download/languageofflower00tyas/page/n113_w1200.jpg | printed caption "Blue Bottle __ Dog Rose __ Garden Anemone"; leaf 113 is p. 78, so the plate sits before p. 79, where the list puts Plate V
- CONFIRMED | [plate-tyas-v-list] "but the orange flowers are the wallflowers of the book’s list of plates" | https://archive.org/download/languageofflower00tyas/page/n20.jpg; https://archive.org/download/languageofflower00tyas/page/n115.jpg | "PLATE V.—Blue Bottle—Dog Rose—Garden Wallflower, combined to express, “Delicacy and simplicity add charms to lasting beauty” . . . 79"; the orange four-petalled clusters are wallflowers
- CONFIRMED | [plate-tyas-v-erratum] "an erratum below that list says the word Anemone should be Wallflower" | https://archive.org/download/languageofflower00tyas/page/n21.jpg | p. xiv, below Plate XII: "ERRATUM. In Plate V.,—Blue Bottle—Dog Rose—Garden Anemone, the word Anemone should be Wallflower."
- CONFIRMED | [plate-tyas-v-pencil] "a reader of this copy pencilled Wallflower over the caption" | https://archive.org/download/languageofflower00tyas/page/n115.jpg | "Wallflower" in pencil above "Garden Anemone"
- CONFIRMED | [plate-tyas-v-rights] "leaf 115, from the LuEsther T. Mertz Library of the New York Botanical Garden; the Internet Archive’s record marks it as not in copyright" | https://archive.org/metadata/languageofflower00tyas/metadata | as for leaf 7
- CONFIRMED | [plate-maza-title] "the cover of The Ladies Handbook of the Language of Flowers & Precious Stones" | https://archive.org/download/b30477669/page/n0.jpg; https://archive.org/metadata/b30477669/metadata | the title is right (the record's "Cover title"); the record's excerpt said "On ribbons:", but only part of the title is on ribbons (see the findings)
- CONFIRMED | [plate-maza-cite] "an advertising booklet for Mazawattee tea (London: printed by Davies & Davies, [1890])" | https://archive.org/download/b30477669/page/n17.jpg; https://archive.org/download/b30477669/page/n0.jpg; https://archive.org/metadata/b30477669/metadata | at the foot of the tea advertisement, leaf 17: "DAVIES & DAVIES, Mediæval Press, 46, St. Mary Axe, E.C."; the cover's foot "DAVIES & DAVIES." and "LONDON"; the record: "Advertising booklet for Mazawattee Tea", 1890; no date is printed
- CONFIRMED | [plate-maza-same] "which prints nearly the same list as Beecham’s calendar, for another advertiser" | research/the-language-of-flowers/out/analysis.json; https://archive.org/metadata/b30477815/metadata | 410 of 412 shared flowers word for word (99.5%); Beecham's record: creator "Beecham, Thomas", "Includes advertisements for Beecham's Pills"
- CONFIRMED | [plate-maza-rights] "leaf 0, the cover, from the Wellcome Library; the Internet Archive’s record gives it the Creative Commons Public Domain Mark" | https://archive.org/metadata/b30477669/metadata | contributor "Wellcome Library"; rights "This work is available under the Creative Commons, Public Domain Mark"
- OBSERVED | [plate-made] "Retrieved 2026-11-06; self-hosted here." | git log -S greenaway-1884-p37 (commit 40bfa450fd, 2026-11-06 22:32 UTC); recreated with research/the-language-of-flowers/plates.sh | the scan is the same (sha256 b3cf383d263da061) and the rebuild byte-identical; the picture is served from the page's own folder
- CONFIRMED | [none] "Left: the frontispiece of La Tour’s Le Langage des Fleurs (Paris: Audot; ...)" | https://archive.org/download/langagedesfleur00lato/page/n12.jpg | leaf 11 faces the engraved title, leaf 12: "Le Langage DES FLEURS, Par Madame Charlotte de Latour. Paris, Audot, Libraire, Rue des Maçons Sorbonne N° 11"
- CONFIRMED | [none] La Tour alt text, "An engraved, coloured plate in a ruled frame: two pink roses with buds, sprigs of myrtle and a trail of ivy, captioned in French ‘Rose. Lierre. Myrte.’ over ‘Beauté. Amitié constante. Amour.’" | https://archive.org/download/langagedesfleur00lato/page/n11.jpg | as described; the buds are red; the published crop keeps the lettering and both signatures
- CONFIRMED | [none] Tyas frontispiece alt text, "two large pink roses with buds and leaves, small white myrtle flowers and lobed ivy leaves, captioned ‘The Rose, The Myrtle, The Ivy’" | https://archive.org/download/languageofflower00tyas/page/n7.jpg | as described, with ivy at the upper left and at the foot; the commas stand for the plate's rules
- CONFIRMED | [none] Ingram alt text, "A title page printed in colours, in a trellis frame of green leaves and pale flowers, lettered in red, gold, pink and grey" | https://archive.org/download/florasymbolica00ingr/page/n6.jpg | as described; the plate prints "&" where the alt text says "and"
- CONFIRMED | [none] Plate V alt text, "a bouquet of orange wallflowers, pink dog roses and blue cornflowers, captioned ‘Blue Bottle, Dog Rose, Garden Anemone’, with ‘Wallflower’ pencilled by hand above the last two words" | https://archive.org/download/languageofflower00tyas/page/n115.jpg | as described; commas again for the plate's rules
- WRONG | [none] Mazawattee alt text, "with the title on ribbons, ‘The Ladies Handbook of the Language of Flowers and Precious Stones’" | https://archive.org/download/b30477669/page/n0.jpg | MINOR: "The Ladies Handbook of" is lettered in outline on the pink ground; only "the Language of Flowers" and "& Precious Stones" are on ribbons; the rest of the description is right
- CONFIRMED | [none] Greenaway alt text, "a list of roses and their meanings, from Rose, Daily to Rye Grass, with ‘Rose, Yellow . . Decrease of love. Jealously.’ near the middle, and drawings of a girl carrying a large bunch of yellow roses and a girl in green" | https://archive.org/download/languageflowers00gree/page/n40.jpg | as described
- CONFIRMED | [greenaway-yellow] "Page 37 ... The yellow rose: “Decrease of love. Jealously.”" | https://archive.org/download/languageflowers00gree/page/n40.jpg | page number 37; "Rose, Yellow . . . . Decrease of love. Jealously."
- CONFIRMED | [greenaway-title] "illustrated by Kate Greenaway, printed in colours by Edmund Evans (London: George Routledge and Sons, [1884])" | https://archive.org/download/languageflowers00gree/page/n8_w1200.jpg; https://archive.org/metadata/languageflowers00gree/metadata | "ILLUSTRATED BY KATE GREENAWAY PRINTED IN COLOURS BY EDMUND EVANS ... London: George Routledge and Sons", undated; the record gives "[1884]"
- WRONG | [greenaway-bhl] "leaf 40, from the Biodiversity Heritage Library, which states: “Public domain. ...”" | https://archive.org/metadata/languageflowers00gree/metadata | MINOR: the statement is exact, but the record names the holding library (contributor) as "Smithsonian Libraries" and the BHL as sponsor; the new captions name the holder first
- OBSERVED | [none] plates.sh, "Each picture is one scanned leaf, trimmed of its scan margin (or cropped to the plate) and reduced; nothing is retouched, recoloured or combined" | recreated: TMPDIR=<scratch> sh research/the-language-of-flowers/plates.sh | all seven scans match their sha256 prefixes and all seven rebuilt pictures are byte-identical to the published files; the only options are -shave, -crop, -resize, -quality and -strip (Greenaway's n40_w2000.jpg is served at 2073x2611, byte-identical to the full-size n40.jpg)
- WRONG | [none] the check section's "recomputes ... every number in the prose, and fails if any differs", as it applied to the plate captions | public/strata/the-language-of-flowers/index.html; verify-the-language-of-flowers.mjs, run with AW_DIR on mutant copies | MINOR: a year moved to the other book of the pair passed (23262/0), as did a plate moved to another leaf everywhere at once, the Phillips plate put in another entry, two of its emblems swapped, and a number in an alt text

## Findings
- [fixed] MED: the page said the pear's rhyme with hope could not survive translation ("Carry the pear into French or English and the hope falls out of it"), and the relates note that the pear "reached Europe without it". Hammer's p. 35 says his translation keeps the rhyme where it comes naturally, and his own Dictionnaire (p. 36) prints "Poire. Donnez-moi de l'espoir.": rhyme and hope both kept. Re-read on the page images n55 and n56. The section is now "The hope the books left out": Hammer printed a dictionary after all, his pear still rhymes, and the hope reached French in his journal but never the flower books (ten list the pear; none gives it hope). The relates note, the TV narration and the ledger were corrected the same way, and the kept copy of p. 35 now has the translation sentence it had cut.
- [fixed] MED: "Every figure on this page about agreement is computed in your browser from the same entries" and "recomputed in your browser from the entries themselves" were not so: the toggle adds up the stored counts for each pair, and the prose figures are written in at build time. Both sentences now say exactly that, and that the verifier recomputes everything from the entries.
- [fixed] MED: "Elizabeth Wirt, whose Flora's Dictionary came out in Baltimore in 1832": it was first printed in 1829 (Susan Loy; the copy read has a copyright entry of 1831 and an engraved title of 1832). The page now says first printed in 1829, read here in a printing of 1832; "both of 1832" for Wirt and Hale became "both read in printings of 1832". The 1829 is a declared string the verifier finds in the kept Loy copy.
- [fixed] MINOR: the shelf caption said every spine is coloured from its own cover; the London book of 1834 has no cover in its scan. The caption now says so.
- [fixed] MINOR: the London 1834 book was listed as "The Language of Flowers; with Illustrative Poetry"; its title page reads only "THE LANGUAGE OF FLOWERS". Corrected in books.json, so in the books list and data.json.
- [fixed] MINOR: "the decrease of love ... is in seven" leaves out Reid's yellow rose, which his book files as "Rose, Yellow. (Yellow Sweet Briar.)", a name the strict rule keeps apart; it too says "Decrease of love.". The paragraph now names it and says why it is counted apart; the verifier checks the entry.
- [fixed] MINOR: the published /checks/ copy of the verifier was stale. Republished with scripts/publish-checks.mjs (and publish.sh does it again before landing).
- [fixed] MINOR: "the 13 readings it shares with Hale's Boston book and no other book here": all 13 are also in Hale's own later edition of 1856. Now "no other book here, bar Hale's own later edition", and the verifier checks that no other book prints any of them.
- [fixed] MINOR: brackets for names not printed on title pages were uneven. The 1841 Sentiment of Flowers is now "[Robert Tyas]", Adams "[John S. Adams]", Valentine "“L. V.” [L. Valentine]", Seelye "“Uncle Charlie” [Charles W. Seelye]", Ingram as printed ("John Ingram"); the two advertising booklets are described as such, with their printer and, in brackets, the advertiser. The sources note now reads "A name or a year in square brackets is not printed on the title page".
- [fixed] (found by the agent at an earlier commit, fixed before its pass ended) the sense paragraph was a bare placeholder at 9028927d02; written at 138e6b5bc7.
- [fixed] (found by the agent at an earlier commit) the verifier's --mutate run planted its changed meaning in a French entry, which is compared through its gloss, so nothing moved; fixed at b5507396ef to plant it in an English entry.

### The plates (second pass)
- [fixed] MINOR: the Mazawattee cover's alt text said the whole title was on ribbons. Only "the Language of Flowers" and "& Precious Stones" are; "The Ladies Handbook of" is in outline letters on the pink ground above them. Re-read on b30477669 n0. The alt text, the kept transcription (with a dated note of the correction) and the source record's excerpt now say so.
- [fixed] MINOR: Greenaway's caption, from the first ship, said the scan came "from the Biodiversity Heritage Library". The catalogue record names Smithsonian Libraries as the contributor and the BHL as the sponsor (re-read in the kept ia-metadata-languageflowers00gree.json). It now reads "from Smithsonian Libraries by way of the Biodiversity Heritage Library", like the new captions, and the source record's entry follows.
- [fixed] MINOR: the new plate check was weaker than the page's "every number in the prose". A year could move to the other book of a pair; a plate's leaf was recorded only in the page's own attribute, so moving it everywhere at once passed; the Phillips check never read the caption; and alt texts were not swept for numbers. The verifier now: pins each picture to the leaf it was made from, checks that table against plates.sh in the repository, and, when the pictures are present, checks each one's pixel size against the page; checks each caption year after its own book's city; reads the four emblems, the plate's title and "bound into his entry for Pride" from the caption against Phillips's entries; and fails on any digit in an alt text. Five new mutations, one for each probe that had passed, are each caught.