[Anglicized form of prec. Cf. Fr. fritillaire.]
1. Any plant of the genus Fritillaria, esp. F. Meleagris (see prec.).
1633. Gerarde’s Herball, I. lxxxix. 151. In English we may call it Turky-hen or Ginny-hen Floure, and also Checquered Daffodill, and Fritillarie, according to the Latine.
1668. Wilkins, Real Char., 74. Fritillary.
1688. R. Holme, Armoury, II. 74/1. The sullen Lady, hangeth her head down (as this Flower doth) and is of an umberish dark hair colour, without any checker or spots. Some call it the black Fritillary.
1767. J. Abercrombie, Ev. Man own Gardener (1803), 47. Fritillaries, crown imperials, or any other kind of bulbous flower-roots, that yet remain above ground, should now be planted, as soon as weather will permit.
1828. Miss Mitford, Village, Ser. III. (1863), 531. The chequered fritillary or the tinted wood anemone.
1867. M. Arnold, Thyrsis. I know what white, what purple fritillaries The grassy harvest of the river-fields Above by Ensham, down by Sandford yields.
2. A name for several species of butterfly, e.g., the Silver-washed Fritillary (Argynnis paphia) and the Queen of Spain Fritillary (A. lathonia).
1857. Kingsley, Two Y. Ago, III. 132–3. The ‘white admirals’ and silver washed ‘fritillaries’ flit round every bramble bed.
1866. Blackmore, C. Nowell, xxx. Off dashed Bob after a Queen of Spain fritillary.
