14 LANGUAGE OF FLOWERS. 
lover and his mistress. In order to envelope it the 
more completely in the veil of secrecy, the significa- 
tions of the different flowers are changed, in con- 
formity with a preconcerted plan : for example, the 
rose is employed to express the idea which would 
otherwise be attached to the amaranth, the gilli- 
flower is substituted for the pomegranate blos- 
som, &c. 
The language of flowers is much employed in 
the Turkish harems, where the women practise it 
either for the sake of mere diversion In their 
solitude, or for the purpose of secret communica- 
tion. 
La Motraie, the companion of Charles XII., and 
Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, were the first who 
gave celebrity in Europe to the language of flowers. 
The few examples cited by Lady Montagu are not 
calculated to afford a clear and accurate idea of the 
principles on which this language is founded. Its 
spirit consists not, as might naturally be supposed, 
in the connexion which fancy may trace between 
particular flowers and certain thoughts and feelings. 
Such an idea never entered the heads of the fair 
inventresses of the oriental language of flowers. 
They have contented themselves with merely taking 
