7. Johnston's "Botany of Eastern Borders," 1853, p. 177.

8. Lady Wilkinson's "Weeds and Wild Flowers," p. 269.




CHAPTER XIV.

PLANT LANGUAGE.


Plant language, as expressive of the various traits of human character,
can boast of a world-wide and antique history. It is not surprising that
flowers, the varied and lovely productions of nature's dainty handiwork,
should have been employed as symbolic emblems, and most aptly indicative
oftentimes of what words when even most wisely chosen can ill convey;
for as Tennyson remarks:--

"Any man that walks the mead
In bud, or blade, or bloom, may find
A meaning suited to his mind."

Hence, whether we turn to the pages of the Sacred Volume, or to the
early Greek writings, we find the symbolism of flowers most eloquently
illustrated, while Persian poetry is rich in allusions of the same kind.
Indeed, as Mr. Ingram has remarked in his "Flora Symbolica,"[1]--Every
age and every clime has promulgated its own peculiar system of floral
signs, and it has been said that the language of flowers is as old as