VOICES 



IN THE GARDEN- 



VOICES IN THE GARDEN 



THERE are voices to be heard in the garden. 

 Some are audible, as in the songs of the birds, 

 the humming of insects, and the hymnings of 

 the wind; but mostly garden voices are heard 

 only by the ear of an imaginative sympathy. 



There is a language of the flowers. It is well 

 to question them. They have something to 

 tell us. 



I am speaking the common speech of man. 

 The literature of every people reflects it. The 

 language of botany is full of imagery that sug- 

 gests it, but it is the common names of the 

 flowers that tell best how the mystical mean- 

 ings hidden in the flowers have made them- 

 selves heard in human speech. 



It has been said that "the botanical name 

 expresses the plant's standing in the scien- 



