JOURNAL 
OF 
The New York Botanical Garden 
Vot. I. November, 1900. No. 11. 
THE FAIRYLORE OF FLOWERS.* 
To most minds there is an irresistible charm investing those 
plants which by the folklore of the past have been connected with 
the fairies. Whatever has been believed in the past becomes in- 
men have thought true. This search for beliefs in relations of 
flowers to the supernatural leads us chiefly among familiar old- 
world flowers. We are not to expect flowers chosen simply for 
much more capricious than that ; no law of form or color or re- 
lationship limited their favors ea they would b bestow immor- 
Few of these fancied associations have survived a voyage across 
the Atlantic ; indeed there are now few places in the Old World 
where they yet really live. 
Few authors are more quaint and interesting than old John 
Selden, contemporary of Shakespeare and of Milton; and his 
judgment of life was given in ane wo one 
“«Tt was never a merry fairies left off dancing,” 
and we who feel with Lowell that 
“ Bae should be 
itch and pes valve all 
Sven elie," 
* Abstract of lecture given at the Museum, June 2, 1900. 
161 
