96 POETICAL LANGUAGE OF FLOWERS. 
they bent toward the right, they were then supposed 
to denote prosperity unto the end ; seven streaks they 
interpreted into constancy in love, and if the centre one 
was longest, they prophesied that Sunday would be 
their wedding-day; eight denoted fickleness ; nine, a 
changing heart; and eleven — the most ominous num¬ 
ber of all — disappointment in love, and an early grave. 
They called it no end of endearing names; such as 
Love-in-idleness, — Cuddle-me-to-you, — Kiss-me-at-the- 
garden-gate, — Heart.s’-ease, — Think-of-me, — Three- 
faces-under-a-hood,—Jump-up-and-kiss-me,—and many 
others equally expressive, which have yet to be culled 
out of the pages of our oldest poets ; and this flower, 
eyed like the bird of Juno, has ever been selected as 
the emblem of the noblest faculty with which man¬ 
kind is gifted. After all its trivial appellatives are ex¬ 
hausted, it stands up, bold and solemn, the solitary 
flower of thought: the representative of that silent 
messenger which in a moment is wafted over wide 
seas, and to far-off foreign shores ; that can recall faces, 
and forms, and sights, and sounds, at will, — daring 
even to soar into the presence of the Highest, and pic¬ 
ture the halo of that blinding glory, before which the 
ranged ranks of Heaven “ veil their faces with their 
