How good they all are to me. I quite love that dear Dr. Van Helsing. I wonder why he was so anxious about these flowers. He positively frightened me, he was so fierce…There is peace in its smell; I feel sleep coming already.
– Bram Stoker
Dracula, Chapter 11. Lucy Westenra, writing in her diary, says that she feels better and that Van Helsing’s garlic flowers have brought her some peace. But she doesn’t understand their purpose and is frightened by Van Helsing’s fierce insistence that she wear a wreath of garlic around her neck and the flowers be spread all around the room. Van Helsing, an expert on vampires, introduced the garlic as a protection for Lucy.