INTRODUCTION'. 



Thf Language of Flora has been traced by its students to widely different 

 sources, each presenting some true claim to the title, yet none so entirely sub- 

 verting those of others, as to stand forth alcfhe as its originator; for truly the 

 origin of this voice of the flowers is coeval with their creation, and is still a 

 tongae sufficiently simple and attractive to have a charm for every student of 

 nature, and to suggest appropriate emblems evgn to the illiterate rustic, who 

 plucks the way-side daisy, or the blue forget-me-not, to be presented to some 

 village maiden as the readiest expression of his love. 



It is, in tnith, no creature of modem art, but the free-bom child of unsophisti- 

 '1 cated nature. " Lovely as the rose," " Fair as the lily," or " Modest as the i 

 J violet," are phrases that seem to come naturally into use, without thought that 

 l! in this emblematic employment lies the germ of true poetry and the symbolic lan- 

 j- guage of Flora ; and though to these will be found added, in the present volume, 



many wherein the object seems less suggestive of the sense, and where the idea : 

 I! sought to be conveyed is more complex and difficult intelligently to symbolize, i 

 |i yet in this is only presented the floral tongue passing through the same pro- i 

 I; gressive stages that have characterized the annals of every spoken language. 

 In a rude and primitive state, the words are few and simple that suflice to clothe 

 in language the thoughts and desires of an untutored race of men ; but with 

 every increasing want, and every new desire, names and forms of thought must ,i 

 be created, until the brief vocabulary of the savage tribe swells into the com- \\ 

 plex dictionary of an intelligent and civilized people. And so has it been with jj 

 this universal language. "He cometh forth as a flower and is cut down," is Ij 

 the expressive and universally intelligible language of Scripture. And no less |! 

 doefe it early prefigure hope than frailty, "S\'e strew them over the shroud of |i 

 departed love, and plant them to bloom brightly above the grave, that they |; 

 may speak in spring of a brighter season of hope, and in summer of that j; 

 heavenly clime that knows only of an eternal gjmmer and a cloudless sky, and |' 

 in aU seasons, of love, and purity, and peace. To these, the simple expressions |; 

 of natural fteling, have been added fi-om time to time, from the pages of classic ,j 

 poetry and the more complex fancies of later writers, a series of ideas attached jj 

 to every flower, by means of which the nosegay may be made to take the place j 

 of more formal epistles. 



