Yesterday a thing long desired finally happened: I acquired a copy of V.
Sackville-West’s Passenger to Teheran. It’s the 1990 edition with an
introduction by her son Nigel Nicolson – I recommend this edition for this
introduction in particular because it gives good background information and
gives answers to some questions which the attentive reader will no doubt want to
ask.

When I finally acquire a book I’ve long wanted, I pounce on it. Last night I
skimmed through the text, starting from the back and working towards the front
as is my style. I was searching for the passages where she describes seeing
Fritillaria imperiialis in the wild. I quickly found that, but I also found
something which left me puzzled.

Here’s what she wrote: “The yellow squills are everywhere, very strongly
scented.” What in the world could these have been? Was “squill” a lapsus
calami for “narcissus”, as in Narcissus tazetta?