CHAPTER XIII
TUSSY-MUSSIES
"There be some flowers make a delicious Tussie-Mussie or Nosegay both for Sight and Smell."
—John Parkinson, A Garden of all Sorts of Pleasant Flowers, 1629.
No following can be more productive of a study and love of word derivations and allied word meanings than gardening. An interest in flowers and in our English tongue go hand in hand. The old mediæval word at the head of this chapter has a full explanation by Nares as "A nosegay, a tuzzie-muzzie, a sweet posie." The old English form, tussy-mose was allied with tosty, a bouquet, tuss and tusk, a wisp, as of hay, tussock, and tutty, a nosegay. Thomas Campion wrote:—
"Joan can call by name her cows,
And deck her windows with green boughs;
She can wreathes and tuttyes make,
And trim with plums a bridal cake."
Tussy-mussy was not a colloquial word; it was found in serious, even in religious, text. A tussy-mussy was the most beloved of nosegays, and was often made of flowers mingled with sweet-scented leaves.
My favorite tussy-mussy, if made of flowers, would be of Wood Violet, Cabbage Rose, and Clove Pink. These are all beautiful flowers, but many of our most delightful fragrances do not come from flowers of gay dress; even these three are not showy flowers; flowers of bold color and growth are not apt to be sweet-scented; and all flower perfumes of great distinction, all that are unique, are from blossoms of modest color and bearing. The Calycanthus, called Virginia Allspice, Sweet Shrub, or Strawberry bush, has what I term a perfume of distinction, and its flowers are neither fine in shape, color, nor quality.