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PREFACE. 
is the mature outgrowth of such notes. In order to make the book 
pleasing to the general reader, it has been the endeavor to exclude all 
technical terms pertaining to the science of botany, except the mere 
classification of plants into families to show the relation of one plant to 
another. 
This arrangement has been made according to what is called the 
Natural System, it being the one most in use in the various books on 
botany, as more philosophical than the Linnean System. 
The sentiment or language assigned to each flower has been the 
result of an extended search through various works both ancient and 
modern, the most ancient being the richest, however, in material and in 
poetic ideas. The sentiments attached to flowers originating in the imag- 
inative minds of the people, served as a means of communication at a 
time when the art of writing was known only to the few, these being 
mostly learned men and professional scribes. As the well known disa- 
greements of authors in attributing different languages to the same 
plant often make it difficult to determine which to choose, it is proper 
to state that the sentiments here given have been preferred because of 
the weight of authority in their favor. 
Having led the reader into the bowers of nature, what more natural 
.than that many paths should be found leading into the garden of the 
poets, where rich intellectual blossoms are scattered with an unsparing 
hand? The love of poetry elevates the soul and makes it more suscep- 
tible to those delicate, spiritual and subtle influences that’ are found in 
other souls; it gives it a more rare appreciation of those higher beau- 
ties that are daily seen both in nature and art; it awakens a depth of 
feeling that almost entirely obliterates selfishness, and opens the heart 
to generous sympathies and warm impulses. The selections made 
for this work are numerous, and are the result of a very prolonged and 
laborious quest, They have been culled from many sources and various 
authors, foreign and native, and comprehend many of the choicest gems 
ih 
) from the works of the best poets of all ages. O. He OY: 
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