An excerpt from Chapter 19, “Alice’s Posies,” that underscores the connection
between Alice Pyncheon and the flowers names for her
One object, above all others, would take root in the imaginative observer's
memory. It was the great tuft of flowers,--weeds, you would have called
them, only a week ago,--the tuft of crimson-spotted flowers, in the angle
between the two front gables. The old people used to give them the name
of Alice's Posies, in remembrance of fair Alice Pyncheon, who was believed
to have brought their seeds from Italy. They were flaunting in rich, beauty
and full bloom, to-day, and seemed, as it were, a mystic expression that
something within the house was consummated. (Chapter
19)
