The Meaning of Flora

Abstract

The term Flora usually refers to the natural vegetation of a particular geographic region or a scientific work that catalogues such vegetation. These meanings have evolved from a metonymy of the Roman goddess Flora. It was previously assumed that this metonymic use began in the seventeenth century and was initially limited to book titles. However, the present article challenges these assumptions and demonstrates that the metonymic use of Flora was employed much earlier, and not in book titles, but in poetry and letters.