I was digging about in the Unix system directories on MacOS X today (actually, searching for ‘joe’ which I thought I had installed, but is nowhere to be found) and stumbled upon the directory /usr/share/misc. Within this folder is the file flowers which is a listing of flowers and their meanings. I don’t know if it is actually referenced by any command; my guess is that a Berkeley programmer got bored and decided to put in an interesting, if not entirely useful in an OS environment, text file.


# Flower : Meaning
# @(#)flowers 8.1 (Berkeley) 6/8/93
#
# Upside down reverses the meaning.
African violet:Such worth is rare.
Apple blossom:Preference.
Bachelor's button:Celibacy.
Bay leaf:I change but in death.
Camelia:Reflected loveliness.
Chrysanthemum, other color:Slighted love.
Chrysanthemum, red:I love.
Chrysanthemum, white:Truth.
Clover:Be mine.
and so on