THE 



LANGUAGE OF FLOWERS 



THE ACACIA {Robinia Pseitdacacia). — Platonic Love. 



" It is a gentle and affectionate thought 

 That, in immeasurable heights above us, 

 At our first birth the wreath of love was woven, 

 With sparkling stars for flowers." — COLERIDGE. 



" Love, the last best gift of heaven ; 

 Love, gentle, holy, pure." — Keble. 



That holy and pure affection, of which a flowering branchlet 

 of the Acacia is emblematical, has surely a heavenly original. 

 Beauty attracts ; but if unaccompanied by those endowments 

 of mind and heart which are truly worthy of esteem, it fails to 

 exercise a lasting power over any who are seeking for them, 

 and who possess the discernment which marks their absence ; 

 on the other hand, where genuineness of character exists, where 

 amiability, considerateness, and purity of heart and mind are 

 found, — though the casket which contains them may be of the 

 plainest, and repulsive rather than attractive, — the influence of 



I B 



