In an effort to save the shreds of our sanity, and make sure we're getting enough variety and entertainment in our diet of COVID isolation and too much work, we're going to *try* to make Saturdays puzzle days. So, here we go. This time, it's card four of Enigma Emporium Season Two - Trial By Cipher - in which we attempt to join the enigmatic (see what I did there?) Infiniti Institute.
On the front, we have five flowers - Poppy, Rose, Sunflower, Coneflower, and Marigold. Except, what's bugging me, former plant geneticist, is that they're listed as spp. which is normally for a latin name, rather than an english name. Something tells me we'll need to find the latin names. Alternatively, we could go diving into the language of flowers.
On the back, we've got a recipe for floral tea, and a message from 'Maple', superimposed over what is possibly supposed to be a maple tree, and a subtitle 'Common Maple', over the wrong latin name for maple (Acer spp.). The name, instead, is for moonshine yarrow (Salix achillea). There are two stamps, one showing what appears to be a dead daisy (0), and what appears to be a floral tea service (100). Maple's note is all about metrics, conversions, etc. so somewhere we'll do the math to get the final number (presumably another message).
Step one: latin it up. Dear old Linnaeus made our lives easier. I've been to his garden in Sweden. Seems like a lifetime ago, when traveling was a thing. I digress... I also look up their meanings in the old Language of Flowers, while my partner tries to make sense of the back.
On the front:
- Poppy - Papaver spp.- symbol of sleep and death
- Rose - Rosa spp. - symbol of love, friendship, etc. depending on the color. These look red so we'll go with love.
- Sunflower - Helianthus spp. - symbol of adoration, loyalty, longevity
- Coneflower - Echinacea spp. - symbol of strength, and possibly healing
- Marigold - Tagetes spp. - herb of the sun, passion and creativity.
So, that gives me nothing, top to bottom, then I read them in order left to right. Papaver-Echinacea-Rosa-Tagetes-Helianthus: PERTH. We have a location of whatever branch of the institute this is for, at least :)
On to the back... I start with the same first step for the floral tea - diving into the latin names. My guess is that the weights will be what letters we need from them, but talking about 'organized' probably means we'll need to alphabetize by latin name, or by english name, before we're through:
- Calendula - Calendula officinalis - 511 - NCC
- Marigold - Tagetes spp. - 142 - TEA
- Mint - Mentha - 29 - ???
- Rose Petals - Rosa petalis -227 - OOT
- Nettles - Urtica dioica - 511 - CNN
- Red Clover - Trifolium pratense - 86 - UL
- Chamomile - Matricaria chamomilla - 142 - MRT
- Lemon Peel - Citrus limon excorio - 539 - UTM
We run into trouble when we get to Mint - there's no specific variety listed, and Genus Mentha doesn't have 9 characters. But I finish because I have a feeling we'll need them anyhow, with apologies for the probably bad Latin on peel and petal. I used google. So, at some point we're going to need to separate the letters from the weights. If we alphabetize by English name, keeping the numbers in the same order, we get
- Calendula - 511 - NCC
- Chamomile - 142 - CMH
- Lemon Peel - 29 - EE
- Marigold
- Mint
- Nettles
- Red Clover
- Rose petals
That quickly goes no where, so we try alphabetizing by latin name. Unfortunately, Calendula stays where it is, and Mint once again throws a spanner in the works. I feel less guilty for all the mint I've accidentally killed over the years (I know it is a weed. I still can't grow it).
- Calendula officinalis - 511 - NCC
- Citrus limon excorio - 142 - CRI
- Matricaria chamomilla - 29 - AI
- Mentha - 227 - EE?
- Rosa petalis
- Tagetes spp.
- Trifolium pratense
- Urtica dioica
What if we alphabetize by latin name, then run the numbers smallest to largest? While I'm throwing everything at the wall, my partner solves it. Ingredients by alphabetical order in English. Then convert the value in grams into ounces (a brilliant leap based on the words 'metric' and 'conversion' in the note), take the whole number, then A-01 gives the following: RESEARCH
- Calendula - 511 grams = 18 ounces = R
- Chamomile - 142g = 5 oz = E
- Lemon Peel - 539g = 19 oz = S
- Marigold - 142 g = 5 oz = E
- Mint - 29g = 1 oz = A
- Nettles - 511g = 18 oz = R
- Red Clover - 86g = 3 oz = C
- Rose petals - 227g = 8 oz = H
So, so far we have the Research Department based in Perth, Australia. We still need a name, but that might be (Moonshine) Yarrow, or Acer. Common Salix would be Willow. If we take Salix achillea separately we get WILLOW YARROW. We go with that, and that seems to work.
We are a bit stumped on the year. The stamps so far have been the year - it may have been established in 100? 1000? 0100 would be 4 in binary. D? 1000 grams = 35 oz. Seems low for something in Australia. 100 oz is 2834, a little high for a year. We try many random approaches, and give up. We go for a clue. Then bang our heads. That dead flower? It's FROZEN. It's not dead dried flower made into tea - it's frozen and boiling, which are 0 and 100 on Celsius, respectively, or 32 and 212 Fahrenheit. 244? Yep.
And there we have card 4. Except for the stamps, which we really needed the help on, this was a lot of fun. I don't know, though, that I would ever have identified the dead flower as frozen without a prompt.
Willow Yarrow, head of the Research Department in Perth, founded in 244, we look forward to meeting you once we've completed our initiation :)
Happy Saturday night all, I hope you're enjoying Season Two - Cycle of Learning from the Enigma Emporium as much as we are!
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