Edelweiss n. (Bot.) A little, perennial, white, woolly plant (Leontopodium alpinum), growing at high elevations in the Alps. It is the national flower of Austria.
... Because he closed my carriage door outside sir Thornley Stoker's one sleety day during the cold snap of February ninetythree when even the grid of the wastepipe and the ballstop in my bath cistern were frozen. Subsequently he enclosed a bloom of edelweiss culled on the heights, as he said, in my honour. I had it examined by a botanical expert and elicited the information that it was ablossom of the homegrown potato plant purloined from a forcingcase of ... — Ulysses • James Joyce
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