Floristan is a variation of Florestan, one of Robert Schumann's alter-egos -- the happier, manic one! (Eusebius was the sadder, depressed one.) In the Davidsbundler Tanzen, Schumann attributes each of the dances to either Florestan or Eusebius. They make another appearance in Carnival.
The Davidsbundler, or League of David, was a quasi-fictional "club" Schumann created as a way to talk about what he considered to be authentic music (Bach, Beethoven, Schubert, himeslf, Brahms) and what he considered the "music of the Philistines" -- mostly theatre/opera music like Bellini, et al., later to include Wagner and Liszt, whom Schumann thought were destroying music with musical hyperemotionalism.
And I just thought it was a cool name.
