352 Phillips's Floral Emblems. 



these. — Vulgar minds^ Envi/, Disgust^ Voracious7tess, tVar, 

 Suspicion, Hatred, &c. ; and why does he represent the 

 latter by the Sweet Basil, by a plant associated with the most 

 tender love, as he may find in the works of Boccacio, and in 

 two poets of our own times, neither of whom should have been 

 forgotten, and, least of all, he whose body was too early laid to 

 rest, to afford his great genius time for full expansion ? 



Why does Mr. Phillips represent Celibacy by a lady with 

 eight husbands (Epilobium angustifolium), and one of the par- 

 ticular favourites of Flora, who is not supposed to advocate 

 that virtue ? Why make the Ladi/s-smock the emblem of 

 Paternal E7T0r, because Shakspeare says that Lear wore the 

 Cuckoo Flower in his flowery crown ; when, in the same page, 

 he quotes lines from Shakspeare, designating the Butter-cup 

 by that name, and expressly distinguishing it from the Lady's- 

 smock ? Why, speaking of the Bed Valerian^ does he quote 

 a line applicable to a very different species ? " Grey loose- 

 strife here, and pale valerian spring." And why give the com- 

 mon Laurel as the emblem of Glory, instead of the true Laurel, 

 the Bay (Zaurus nobilis) ? But it is vain to multiply ques- 

 tions (of which there are many more to ask), until these have 

 been answered. 



The language in which Mr. Phillips expresses his ideas, is 

 as obscure and incorrect as the ideas themselves ; one glaring 

 instance of the latter, is the frequent misuse of the word 

 and, " The language of flowers is said to be as old as the 

 world, and the antiquity of floral emblems as great as that of 

 love itself; and by whom it is supposed to have been in^ 

 vented," &c. 



" That the use of heraldic emblems greatly increased 

 throughout Europe, during the crusades, is generally known ; 

 and where, as a flattering badge, every private soldier wore a 

 cross of red stuff', sewed to his surcoat." 



" This month (January) and the next were added to the 

 year by Numa Pompilius, and had the name from Jamis, a 

 Roman god, painted with two faces (signifying providence or 

 wisdom), judging by things past of things to come." 



Speaking of the Cyclamen, Mr. Phillips says : " We pre- 

 sent this emblem, with a hope that the poets will not longer 

 remain too diffident to let this pretty plant escape the harmony 

 of their song," &c. 



I wish I could find something to speak well of in this vo- 

 lume, but I am obliged to own that even the plates are bad. 

 As a work of art, I am not qualified to speak ; I refer only to 

 the inaccuracy. The holly, in particular, is so little like a 

 holly, that I said to a friend, as I looked at it, " This should 



