Cyclamen
Diffidence
Genus Cyclamen L. (1753)
Modestly hidden in the leaf-litter, the beautiful, bowing flowers of the wild cyclamen suggest diffidence to our authors.
There are several species of cyclamen wild in Europe, and introduced to Britain, but they appear to have largely escaped horticulture in the time. These days, it's C. coum (Eastern cyclamen or sow's-bread) and C. hederifolium (ivy-leaved cyclamen) that proliferate in the woodland, and I confess to be particularly fond of their little, fairy-like flowers. I have grown the latter and found them so strange and charming, with their pig-tail spiral tendrils and tiny pink flowers. They grow well under established deciduous trees, are frost-hardy, and easy to propagate. I recommend them.
These wild cyclamen are far-flung from the cyclamen of contemporary horticulture, however - I was lucky to get one in a wild form from a rare plant nursery in the Macedon Ranges. The cyclamen of nurseries are Cyclamen persicum, florist's cyclamen, a frost-tender plant with much larger flowers. Wikipedia mentions its cultivation in England dates to the 1860s, although it has a longer history in France. I note this for our historical writers with bouquets on their minds - that is, a cyclamen flower of the first half of the century in Britain would only be suitable for the smallest nosegay, not a full bouquet.
Read more here on Glossa Hortensia:
Image source: Prof. Dr. Thomé's Flora von Deutschland, Österreich und der Schweiz, Otto Wilhelm Thomé and W. Migula, Gera-Untermhaus: Eugen Köhler (1889) via the Biodiversity Heritage Library.