Asphodel
2 of the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf carry an entry for Asphodel. Both are reproduced below, so you can see where they agree and where they differ.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
as'fo-del, a plant of the lily kind. It is known also as king's-spear. There is some confusion in the use of the name. The common asphodel of the ancients, the asphodel of Greek mythology, is a handsome plant growing from a cluster of fleshy roots to a height of from two to four feet. The leaves are long, rough edged, and pointed. They cling closely to the stalk. The blossom is of a pallid yellow color. Among the Greeks the asphodel was the peculiar flower of the dead. Homer speaks of the shades of heroes congregated in the asphodel meadows of Hades. The banks of asphodel that border the river of life.--Holmes, Autocrat. Two angels, one of Life and one of Death, Passed o'er our village as the morning broke; But one was crowned with amaranth, as with flame, And one with asphodels, like flakes of light.--Longfellow, The Two Angels.
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
the English name of the plants belonging to the genus asphodelus. The yellow and white species were introduced into this country during the 16th century-the former about the year 1596, and the latter in 1551. The asphodels, being sacred to Proserpine, were used in classic times in funeral ceremonies, and the souls of the departed were supposed by the poets to wander in beautiful meadows adorned with these flowers. In botany, a genus of plants belonging to the order liliaceæ and the section anthericeæ. About eight species are familiar, the best known being A. luteus, the yellow; A. albus, the white; and A. ramosus, the branched lily, or asphodel, called also king's rod. To this family belong the garlic, the hyacinth, the squill, and the Star of Bethlehem.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
The mythological account stands: Homer's shades still drift through the asphodel meadows, and the plant still flowers wild across the Mediterranean each spring. What has moved is the botany. Collier's placed asphodel in the order Liliaceae in 1921, alongside garlic, hyacinth, squill and the Star of Bethlehem; DNA-based classification since the 1990s has broken that old catch-all lily family apart, so Asphodelus now sits in the Asphodelaceae, garlic in the Amaryllidaceae, and hyacinth and squill in the Asparagaceae. Collier's yellow asphodel, "A. luteus" — Aiton's king's-spear — has likewise been moved to its own genus as Asphodeline lutea.
Written for this edition, 2026.