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'Got the hyacinths' - does this sound familiar?

Posted by Hanni on October 19, 2003

From Darwins's biography, written by Randal Keynes
(Darwin's wife, Emma, has her first baby):
'... Emma wrote in her diary: "Baby smiled for the first time." And the next day, as she thought of spring flowers in the dirt and cold
of the London winter, "Baby made little noises. Got the hyacinths." ...'

"Got the hyacinths" - do you have any idea as to what she could have meant by this?
Does this have anything to do with the baby?
Do hyacinths have any special cultural meaning, or did they in victorian times?
Or did she simply get a bouquet of flowers?

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