Symbolism

Many flowers have important symbolic meanings in Western culture. The practice of assigning meanings to flowers is known as floriography. Some of the more common examples include:
Red roses are given as a symbol of love, beauty, and passion.
Poppies are a symbol of consolation in time of death. In the UK, New Zealand, Australia and Canada, red poppies are worn to commemorate soldiers who have died in times of war.
Irises/Lily are used in burials as a symbol referring to "resurrection/life". It is also associated with stars (sun) and its petals blooming/shining.
Daisies are a symbol of innocence.
Flowers within art are also representative of the female genitalia, as seen in the works of artists such as Georgia O'Keefe, Imogen Cunningham, Veronica Ruiz de Velasco, and Judy Chicago, and in fact in Asian and western classical art. Many cultures around the world have a marked tendency to associate flowers with femininity.
The great variety of delicate and beautiful flowers has inspired the works of numerous poets, especially from the 18th-19th century Romantic era. Famous examples include William Wordsworth's I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud and William Blake's Ah! Sun-Flower.
Because of their varied and colorful appearance, flowers have long been a favorite subject of visual artists as well. Some of the most celebrated paintings from well-known painters are of flowers, such as Van Gogh's sunflowers series or Monet's water lilies. Flowers are also dried, freeze dried and pressed in order to create permanent, three-dimensional pieces of flower art.
The Roman goddess of flowers, gardens, and the season of Spring is Flora. The Greek goddess of spring, flowers and nature is Chloris.
In Hindu mythology, flowers have a significant status. Vishnu, one of the three major gods in the Hindu system, is often depicted standing straight on a lotus flower.[11] Apart from the association with Vishnu, the Hindu tradition also considers the lotus to have spiritual significance.[12] For example, it figures in the Hindu stories of creation.[

Morphology & Floral formula

Flowering plants are heterosporangiate, producing two types of reproductive spores. The pollen (male spores) and ovules (female spores) are produced in different organs, but the typical flower is a bisporangiate strobilus in that it contains both organs.
A flower is regarded as a modified stem with shortened internodes and bearing, at its nodes, structures that may be highly modified leaves.[1] In essence, a flower structure forms on a modified shoot or axis with an apical meristem that does not grow continuously (growth is determinate). Flowers may be attached to the plant in a few ways. If the flower has no stem but forms in the axil of a leaf, it is called sessile. When one flower is produced, the stem holding the flower is called a peduncle. If the peduncle ends with groups of flowers, each stem that holds a flower is called a pedicel. The flowering stem forms a terminal end which is called the torus or receptacle. The parts of a flower are arranged in whorls on the torus. The four main parts or whorls (starting from the base of the flower or lowest node and working upwards) are as follows:

Calyx: the outer whorl of sepals; typically these are green, but are petal-like in some species.
Corolla: the whorl of petals, which are usually thin, soft and colored to attract insects that help the process of pollination.
Androecium (from Greek andros oikia: man's house): one or two whorls of stamens, each a filament topped by an anther where pollen is produced. Pollen contains the male gametes.
Gynoecium (from Greek gynaikos oikia: woman's house): one or more pistils. The female reproductive organ is the carpel: this contains an ovary with ovules (which contain female gametes). A pistil may consist of a number of carpels merged together, in which case there is only one pistil to each flower, or of a single individual carpel (the flower is then called apocarpous). The sticky tip of the pistil, the stigma, is the receptor of pollen. The supportive stalk, the style becomes the pathway for pollen tubes to grow from pollen grains adhering to the stigma, to the ovules, carrying the reproductive material.
Although the floral structure described above is considered the "typical" structural plan, plant species show a wide variety of modifications from this plan. These modifications have significance in the evolution of flowering plants and are used extensively by botanists to establish relationships among plant species. For example, the two subclasses of flowering plants may be distinguished by the number of floral organs in each whorl: dicotyledons typically having 4 or 5 organs (or a multiple of 4 or 5) in each whorl and monocotyledons having three or some multiple of three. The number of carpels in a compound pistil may be only two, or otherwise not related to the above generalization for monocots and dicots.
In the majority of species individual flowers have both pistils and stamens as described above. These flowers are described by botanists as being perfect, bisexual, or hermaphrodite. However, in some species of plants the flowers are imperfect or unisexual: having only either male (stamens) or female (pistil) parts. In the latter case, if an individual plant is either female or male the species is regarded as dioecious. However, where unisexual male and female flowers appear on the same plant, the species is considered monoecious.
Additional discussions on floral modifications from the basic plan are presented in the articles on each of the basic parts of the flower. In those species that have more than one flower on an axis—so-called composite flowers—the collection of flowers is termed an inflorescence; this term can also refer to the specific arrangements of flowers on a stem. In this regard, care must be exercised in considering what a ‘‘flower’’ is. In botanical terminology, a single daisy or sunflower for example, is not a flower but a flower head—an inflorescence composed of numerous tiny flowers (sometimes called florets). Each of these flowers may be anatomically as described above. Many flowers have a symmetry, if the perianth is bisected through the central axis from any point, symmetrical halves are produced—the flower is called regular or actinomorphic, e.g. rose or trillium. When flowers are bisected and produce only one line that produces symmetrical halves the flower is said to be irregular or zygomorphic. e.g. snapdragon or most orchids.

A floral formula is a way to represent the structure of a flower using specific letters, numbers, and symbols. Typically, a general formula will be used to represent the flower structure of a plant family rather than a particular species. The following representations are used:
Ca = calyx (sepal whorl; e. g.

Ca5 = 5 sepals)

Co = corolla (petal whorl; e. g.,

Co3(x) = petals some multiple of three )

Z = add if zygomorphic (e. g., CoZ6 = zygomorphic with 6 petals)

A = androecium (whorl of stamens; e. g., A∞ = many stamens)G = gynoecium (carpel or carpels; e. g., G1 = monocarpous)
x: to represent a "variable number"∞: to represent "many"
A floral formula would appear something like this:
Ca5Co5A10 - ∞G1
Several additional symbols are sometimes used (see Key to Floral Formulas).

Flower specialization and pollination

Each flower has a specific design which best encourages the transfer of its pollen. Cleistogamous flowers are self pollinated, after which, they may or may not open. Many Viola and some Salvia species are known to have these types of flowers.
Entomophilous flowers attract and use insects, bats, birds or other animals to transfer pollen from one flower to the next. Flowers commonly have glands called nectaries on their various parts that attract these animals. Some flowers have patterns, called nectar guides, that show pollinators where to look for nectar. Flowers also attract pollinators by scent and color. Still other flowers use mimicry to attract pollinators. Some species of orchids, for example, produce flowers resembling female bees in color, shape, and scent. Flowers are also specialized in shape and have an arrangement of the stamens that ensures that pollen grains are transferred to the bodies of the pollinator when it lands in search of its attractant (such as nectar, pollen, or a mate). In pursuing this attractant from many flowers of the same species, the pollinator transfers pollen to the stigmas—arranged with equally pointed precision—of all of the flowers it visits.
Anemophilous flowers use the wind to move pollen from one flower to the next, examples include the grasses, Birch trees, Ragweed and Maples. They have no need to attract pollinators and therefore tend not to be "showy" flowers. Male and female reproductive organs are generally found in separate flowers, the male flowers having a number of long filaments terminating in exposed stamens, and the female flowers having long, feather-like stigmas. Whereas the pollen of entomophilous flowers tends to be large-grained, sticky, and rich in protein (another "reward" for pollinators), anemophilous flower pollen is usually small-grained, very light, and of little nutritional value to insects.

Peoples Republic of Bangladesh, Gana Prajatantri Bangladesh

Civil and State FlagRed disc on green field. The disc is set slightly toward the hoist so that when the flag is flying it will appear to be in the center. Many illustrations (and probably actual flags, too) have the circle in the center in error, for example, the British Admiralty's Flags of All Nations - 1989. I do not know if the circle was centered when it also included the yellow map of the country. At home I have an example of a Bangladeshi postage stamp ca 1971 with the map on the flag, and I think it shows the circle in the center. Nick Artimovich, 26 August 1997
The red circle should actually be shifted towards the hoist since 1972. The previous flag (1971-1972) had a centered red disc with a yellow map silhouette of Bangladesh. Jan Zrzavy, 26 August 1997
The national flag is bottle green in color and rectangular in size with the length to width ratio of 10:6 bearing a red circle on the body of the green. The red circle has a radius of one fifth of the length of the flag. Its center is placed on the middle of the perpendicular drawn from the nine twentieth part of the flag. The background colour symbolizes the greenery of Bangladesh with its vitality and youthfulness while the red disc represents the rising sun and the sacrifice our people made to obtain our independence. Prescribed sizes of the flag for buildings are 305cm x 183cm, 152cm x 91cm and 76cm x 46cm and for vehicles are 38cm x 23cm and 25cm x 15cm. Collected from http://www.virtualbangladesh.com/bd_flag.html by Dov Gutterman, 23 December 1998.
(See also the Construction Sheet) Santiago Dotor, 26 February 2001

Civil Ensign
image by Željko Heimer
Red, with the national flag in canton. Jan Zrzavy, 16 January 1998

1971 Flag
image by Jorge Candeias, 29 May 1999
The first flag of Bangladesh. I don't know what the official proportions were, but I have used 2:3 as it seems reasonable to assume that the Pakistani practice would have continued for a while. Someone quoted Whitney Smith as saying that the map was omitted because of the difficulty involved in displaying it correctly on both sides. I have some doubts about this explanation: Cyprus has overcome the problem of a two-sided flag, as has Saudi Arabia. Another explanation suggests itself: namely, that the map may have been an unpleasant reminder of the partition of Bengal. Vincent Morley, 1 September 1997
The first flag of the independence movement. The flag initially had the the map of Bangladesh in gold in the center of the red circle. This was the original design of the flag of Bangladesh that the valiant freedom fighters fought under during the liberation war. On the 3rd March 1971, ASM Abdur Rab, the then VP of Dhaka University Students´ Union hoisted the flag for the first time at the historic Dhaka University location known as "bawt-tawla". This flag was also raised at the then Dhaka Race Course at then Ramna Racecourse (now Shuhrawardy Uddayan) when Sheikh Mujibur Rahman gave his historic speech proclaiming "this struggle is the struggle for liberation." (The "bawt-tawla" incidently means the shade of the banyan tree in Bengali. This was, and still is, a popular meeting place for activist students of the University of Dhaka.) Collected from http://www.virtualbangladesh.com/bd_flag.html by Dov Gutterman, 23 December 1998.
Reverse of 1971 Flag
by Jorge Candeias, 29 May 1999
I believe the map ought to be correct on both sides. Pedersen refers to the difficulty of rendering the map correct on both sides of the flag leading to dropping the map. Ole Andersen, 25 May 1999
Erroneous 1971 flag reports
image by Falko Schmidt
Browsing in my files I found a flag, published in an East German journal (NBI - Neue Berliner Illustrierte 13/73) and illustrated here. I don't know, if this flag was ever used. Can anyone help?Falko Schmidt, 29 September 2001
This flag is similar to one that I found on a flag plate in Dicionário Enciclopédico Koogan Larousse Selecções (Encyclopedic Dictionary Koogan Larousse Selecções), vol. 1. The disc is a lot smaller and it's not red, rather somewhere between purple and pink (lilac?). This colour isn't due to some glitch in the printing of the source, since adjacent flags that have red in them are perfectly normal (see image here). If so, and given the lack of any evidence (at least so far) that such a design was used, then I guess it is a case of perpetuating an error from one source to another. It appears to be erroneous.Jorge Candeias, 2 October 2001, 6 February 2005
Origin of the Flag
Modified from http://www.banglarglimpse.com/prelibhist.htm:"The national flag of Bangladesh was a product first conceived by painter Quamrul Hasan. On the 3rd March 1971, ASM Abdur Rab the then VP of Dhaka University Students' Union had the honour of hoisting the first flag of independent Bangladesh at the Dhaka University premises popularly known as Bat-tala. Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman hoisted the flag of independent Bangladesh at his residence, 32 Dhanmondi R/A, at the outskirt of Dhaka, on the 23rd March 1971. It was an unknown Awami League worker who hoisted the first flag of independence at the historical meeting at the then Ramna Race-course on the 7th March 1971 where Sheikh Mujib tacitly called for armed struggle against Pakistani occupation Army. For Quamrul Hasan, making and shaping of the flag needed several months to complete. Unique features of the first flag of independent Bangladesh were the absence of the crescent and star (as in the Pakistan's flag), symbol of the Islamic states. Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and the Bangalees dreamed for the secular Bangladesh.
The red circular disc with map of Bangladesh symbolizes blood of thousands of Bangalis killed by the Pakistanis since 1947 in the Golden Bangla. The green backdrop, needless to say, symbolizes the vitality, youthfulness, greenery and of course symbolizes also our land as agrarian since the pre-Vedic age. Many western writers have written an interpretation of the green backdrop of the Bangladesh flag as the colour of Islam which is essentially wrong information. Please note the Lonely Planet's Bangladesh 1996 edition. Here the author wrongly writes "First flown officially from the rebel Bangladesh embassy in Calcutta when the War of Liberation began". Writing partially correct "The Bangladesh flag is green for the lush country, not for Islam, as some fundamentalists would prefer". The CIA world factbook 1997 has also made the same mistake! The present flag, quite different from the first one, is bottle green in the background, voided of the golden-coloured map of Bangladesh, rectangular in size in the proportion of length to width 10:6. The red circle has a radius of one-fifth of the length of the flag. The red circle's centre is placed on the intersecting point of the perpendicular drawn from the nine-twentieth part of the length and the horizontal line drawn through the middle of its width. The flag of Bangladesh was first hoisted in the UN September 1974. China used her veto against admission of Bangladesh in the UN 1972 and repeated in the year 1973. The Bangladesh flag appeared later in the UN's stamp series "Flag of the member state". "A Bangladeshi now living in exile in Sweden Mr. Mahbubul Haque had the rare opportunity of being actively involved in the Flag Hoisting ceremony of independent Bangladesh at Bat-Tala premises of Dhaka University on the 3rd March 1971. According to him the more radical wing of the Bangladesh Chatra League led by ASM Abdur Rab hastily arranged an extra emergency meeting at Madhu's Canteen in the midnight between 2nd and 3rd March 1971 of the executive committee of BCL (Rab). As the time was passing very fast and the then Pakistani military junta led by Gen. Yahya Khan ordered inflow of the Pakistani Army to Dhaka at a rate of one Boeing 707 filled with Pakistani soldiers every day.Anticipating the imminent Pakistani onslaught, Rab reasoned that there was no other alternative than hoisting the National flag of independent Bangladesh at 11:00 hrs on the 3rd March and in the afternoon Swapan Choudhury of BCL (Rab) would read the proclamation of the Independence of Bangladesh. Swapan Choudhury died later in a combat action during the war of liberation 1971. Rab hoisted the flag as it was planned in the emergency meeting of the Bangladesh Chatra League (Rab), he did not forget to burn the Pakistani flag seconds before he hoisted the flag of Bangladesh. The author of the text asked ASM Rab during a river cruise with him at the Karnaphuli river in Chittagong, November 1996 if he still possessed the same flag at his collection. He remained silent.Mahbubul Haque was then a BCL(Rab) activist, organised active participation of students of Dhaka College in the armed struggle against the Pakistani occupation army 1971. He now lives with his family in the outskirt of Stockholm. ASM Abdur Rab is now minister of shipping and river transport of the Bangladesh Government."It is not clear who exactly is the author, but it may be Prof. Kaiser (text editor), see http://www.banglarglimpse.com/ ("about us", bottom of page)

Domehouse Greenhouse

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River Boats, Sitlakhya River, Bangladesh

A canoe glides past fishing boats at dusk on Bangladesh's flood-swollen Sitlakhya River. Notched into eastern India, this predominantly Muslim nation is a dominated by water, with the Bay of Bengal to the south, mighty rivers throughout, and seasonal monsoon and cyclones that flood up to a third of the country every year.
(Photo shot on assignment for, but not published in, "Bangladesh: When the Water Comes,"

History

After the liberation war, and the eventual independence of Bangladesh, the Government of Bangladesh reorganized the Dhaka branch of the State Bank of Pakistan as the central bank of the country, and named it Bangladesh Bank. This reorganization was done pursuant to Bangladesh Bank Order, 1972, and the Bangladesh Bank came into existence with retrospective effect from 16th December, 1971.