24 
LANGUAGE OJ FLOWERS. 
“It would be difficult,” says the author of 
this observation, “ to find a more emblematic 
wreath for this interesting victim of disappointed 
•love and filial sorrow.” This is only one of 
many instances in wffiich our greatest poet has 
displayed his fondness for flowers, and his 
delicate appreciation of their uses and simili¬ 
tudes. We have another in the “ Winter’s 
Tale,” where he makes Perdita give flowers to 
her visitors appropriate to, and symbolical of, 
their various ages. See Act 4, Scene 3. 
The mystical Language of Flowers, as applied 
to the passions and sentiments, appears to have 
had its rise in those sunny regions where the 
rose springs spontaneously from its native soil, 
and the jessamine and the tuberose fill with 
beauty and perfume alike the garden and the 
wilderness. 
“ 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 delight 
