THE LANGUAGE OF FLOWERS. 21 
Where the virgins are soft, as the roses they 
twine, 
And all, save the spirit of man is divine ?” 
Byron. 
“ Certainly,” says a writer in the Edinburgh 
Magazine of 1818, “ the influence of this land 
of the sun has been felt by the pilgrims from 
our colder climes, and they have presented to 
us a pleasing fable in the Language of Flowers, 
and our imaginations have received with de- 
light the descriptions and interpretations with 
which we have been favoured from time to 
time. We have dwelt on, till we have become 
Enamoured of the delicate mode of expressing 
the rise and progress of love by the gift of the 
tender rose-bud, or the full-blown flower. Wo 
have pitied the despair indicated by a present 
of myrtle interwoven with cypress and pop- 
pies, and we believe that these emblems will 
never cease to convey some similar senti- 
ments, wherever poetry is cultivated or deli- 
cacy understood.” — The same author conti- 
nues, “ But,” Oh, reader, mark that “ but,” 
tis a frightful word, is it not ? ever coming 
to dissipate some bright dream, to scare some 
