SENTIMENT OF FLOWERS. 



join the procession, bear baskets of flowers, 

 which thry offer to the saints. The sweet 

 scents of the rose, cassia, jessamine, orange, 

 and tuberose, mingle with the odor of the 

 burning incense, and almost overpower the 

 senses." 



And we have May day, though now alas! 

 ilit- festivities of that day are becoming less 

 universally celebrated. Either the inhabi- 

 tants of once "merrie England" are less 

 light-hearted than in days of yore, or there 

 is less sociality among us; and perhaps the 

 coldness of the season has tended somewhat 

 toward its desuetude. 



But we must now turn more immediate- 

 ly to notice flowers in connexion with lan- 

 guage, and we shall find that nearly all na- 

 tions are acquainted with the language or 

 sentiment of flowers. The custom of us- 

 ing flowers as a means of conveying thoughts 

 and sentiments is of Eastern origin, and of 

 very remote antiquity ; we find them as im- 

 ages of some poetical idea, or as represent- 

 ing a virtuous or vicious quality., frequently 

 introduced in oriential writings, both sacred 

 and profane. Some, consecrated to tender 



