24 LANGUAGE OS FLOJFEBS. 



"It would be difficult," says the author of 

 this observation, " to find a more emblematic 

 wreath for this interesting victim of disappointed 

 love and filial sorrow." This is only one of 

 many instances in which our greatest poet has 

 displayed his fondness for flowers, and his 

 delicate appreciation of their uses and simili- 

 tudes. We have another in the " Winter's 

 Tale," where he makes Perdita give flowers to 

 her visitors appropriate to, and symbolical of, 

 their various ages. See Act 4, Scene 3. 



The mystical Language of Flowers, as applied 

 to the passions and sentiments, appears to have 

 had its rise in those sunny regions where the 

 rose springs spontaneously from its native soil, 

 and the jessamine and the tuberose fill with 

 beauty and perfume alike the garden and the 

 wilderness. 



11 Certainly," says a writer in the Edinburgh 

 Magazine of 1818, "the influence of this land 

 of the sun has been felt by the pilgrims from 

 our colder climes, and they have presented to 

 us a pleasing fable in the Language of Flowers, 

 and our imaginations have received with delight 



