Hi Rachel,

With regard to your point about flowers and chastity– I definitely understand your point about flowers being sexual in nature, but I have also seen flowers used to represent virginity. With this representation, the connection between chastity and flowers makes much more sense. One term I think of is to “deflower,” meaning to take one’s virginity. I do not know the exact origins of this term or how long it has been around, but from a brief web search, it does not seem to be a modern term so could have been relevant around this time period.