This cartoon of Oscar Wilde appeared in The Wasp on the eve of Wilde's third lecture in San Francisco; he is deep in his tour of America at this point. Sunflowers, once again, populate the image, and the $ sign once again is printed on the Aestheticist symbol of the sunflower; Wilde is once again being accused of only being an Aestheticist out of the desire for monetary greed.

Now is a good time to delve deeper into why this timeline is so interested in flowers, particularly in the sunflower and the lily. Yes, they were both known Aestheticist symbols (as can be concluded from the amount of times they have appeared in cartoons/caricatures of Wilde), but they also can be interpreted to have a queer undertone as well. Bloom & Wild's page on "The meaning, history and symbolism of sunflowers," yellow sunflowers are said to "have a meaning of goodness, truth, and timelessness." Is the beauty and radiance of the sunflower its relationship to truth? Could this truth be a queer one? If so, it could be said that engaging with Aestheticism could be more about internal truth-seeking than surface-gleaning (as the cartoons and caricatures are suggesting). 

The meaning of the lily (or the calla lily, to be specific), as detailed in the Greg App's page "Symbolism And Benefits of the Calla Lily" has a sexual connotation; "Freud saw it as a symbol of sexuality, while Georgia O'Keefe painted it so provocatively that she was dubbed 'the lady of the lilies.'" In addition, "In ancient Egypt, it was a marker of fertility, while the Romans saw it as a sign of sexuality due to its phallic spike." Somehow, this flower is both vaginal and phallic, which makes it rife with sexual implications no matter the type of lily. Wilde could be using the lily as a symbol of observing and understanding one's sexuality.

Sources:

Keller, G.F. "The Modern Messiah." The Wasp, 31 Mar. 1882, https://www.oscarwildeinamerica.org/features/the-modern-messiah.html.

"The meaning, history and symbolism of sunflowers." Bloom & Wild, https://www.bloomandwild.com/the-blog/meaning-and-symbolism-of-sunflowers.

Greg App links on Calla Lilies:

https://greg.app/calla-lily-flowers/

https://greg.app/calla-lily-benefits/#:~:text=%F0%9F%8E%A8%20Historical%....