Flowers Along the Way

In the second half of the "Combray" chapter, we are introduced to two walks leading from the Narrator's great aunt's house:

1) a shorter one, leaving from her front door, making its way along the white fence marking the boundary of Swann's property and crossing the plain -- named by Proust the The Méséglise Way (or "Swann's Way"); and

2) a longer one, leaving from her back door and winding its way along the river -- named by Proust The Guermantes Way.

I thought it might be helpful to look up images for the flowers he sees along these routes.

(I know, I know: these flowers are 2D, scentless, and each of them is confined to a small rectangle. But at least they give our imaginations a starting-point... from which to wander.)

*

Flowers along the Méséglise Way

"We would leave the town by the road which ran along the white fence of M. Swann's park...

Before reaching it we would be met on our way by the scent of his lilac-trees, come out to welcome strangers. From amid the fresh little green hearts of their foliage they raised inquisitively over the fence of the park their plumes of white or mauve blossom, which glowed even in the shade, with the sunlight in which they had bathed."

"In front of us a path bordered with nasturtiums ascended in the full glare of the sun towards the house."

"And so it was that, at the foot of the path which led down to the artificial lake, there might be seen, in its two tiers woven of forget-me-nots..."

"...and periwinkle flowers, a natural, delicate, blue garland encircling the water's luminous and shadowy brow..."

"...while the iris, flouishing its sword-blades in regal profusion..."

"...stretched out over agrimony..."

"...and water-growing crowfoot..."

"...the tattered fleur-de-lis, violet and yellow, of its lacustrine sceptre."

"I found the whole path throbbing with the fragrance of hawthorn-blossom..."

"My eyes traveled up the bank which rose steeply to the fields beyond the hedge, alighting on a stray poppy..."

 

"...or a few laggard cornflowers which decorated the slope here and there like the border of a tapestry..."

"And it was indeed a hawthorn, but one whose blossom was pink, and lovelier even than the white."

"The hedge offered a glimpse, inside the park, of an alley bordered with jasmine..."

"...pansies..." 

"...and verbenas, among which the stocks held open their fresh plump purses, of a pink as fragrant and as faded as old Spanish leather..."

"I saw a breath of wind... finally come to rest, warm and rustling, among the clover..."

"...and sanfoin at my feet."

 

"It was on the Méséglise Way that I first noticed the circular shadow which apple trees cast upon the sunlit ground, and also those impalpable threads of golden silk which the setting sun weaves slantingly downwards from beneath their leaves..."

*

Flowers along the Guremantes Way

"...the river flowing past, sky-blue already between banks still black and bare, its only companions a clump of premature daffodils..."

 

"...and early primroses..."

 

"...while here and there burned the blue flame of a violet, its stem drooping beneath the weight of the drop of perfume stored in its tiny horn."

 

"The Pont-Vieux led to a tow-path which at this point would be overhung in summer by the bluish foliage of a hazel tree..."

  

"...the remains, half-buried in the grass, of the castle of the old Counts of Combray... half-concealed beneath a spangled veil of buttercups."

 

"...the little ponds into which the Vivonne was here diverted were aflower with water-lilies."

"Elsewhere a corner seemed to be reserved for those commoner kinds of lily, of a neat pink or white like rocket-flowers, washed clean like porcelain with housewifely care..."

 

"...while, a little further again, others... suggested garden pansies that had settled here like butterflies and were fluttering their blue and burnished wings over the transparent depths of this water garden..."

 

"We would sit down among the irises at the water's edge."

 

"And then it happened that, along the Guermantes way, I sometimes passed beside well-watered little enclosures, over whose hedges rose clusters of dark blossom... red and purple spikes along the tops of the low walls..."

(These last flowers are never named. Ideas?)