INTRODUCTION. 
If we may believe modern interpreters, the 
language of flowers was known to the ancients, 
and it would appear that the Greeks understood 
the art of communicating a secret message through 
the medium of a bouquet. It is only necessary to 
consult the Dream-book of Artemidorus to be con- 
vinced that every individual flower of which the 
wreaths of the ancients were composed conveyed 
some particular meaning. At all events, it is evi- 
dent that garlands were conspicuous in the emble- 
matic devices of antiquity. 
Our English poets have not neglected to avail 
themselves of the emblematic language of flowers. 
