Introduction. 
9 
of her regards, and in her poem of “ A Flower in a Letter,” 
tells us that 
“Love’s language may be talked with these; 
To work out choicest sentences, 
No blossoms can be meeter; 
And, such being used in Eastern bowers, 
Young maids may wonder if the flowers 
Or meanings be the sweeter. 
“ And such being strewn before a bride, 
Her little foot may turn aside, 
Their longer bloom decreeing, 
Unless some voice’s whispered sound 
Should make her gaze upon the ground 
Too earnestly for seeing. 
“And such being scattered on a grave, 
Whoever mourneth there, may have 
A type which seemeth worthy 
Of that fair body hid below, 
Which bloomed on earth a time ago, 
Then perished as the earthy. 
“And such being wreathed for worldly feast. 
Across the brimming cup some guest 
Their rainbow colours viewing, 
May feel them, with a silent start, 
The covenant his childish heart 
With Nature made,—renewing.’ 
In these two beautiful poems, the chief emblematic purposes 
to which “love’s interpreters” are applied, have been alluded to, 
and it will thence be gathered that from birth to burial all the 
principal epochs of human life, public or private, are dependent 
upon floral associations for their most noteworthy decorations. 
H. G. Adams, in a remarkably interesting work on the “Moral, 
Language, and Poetry of Flowers,” has collected a large amount 
of amusing information respecting the typical usage of these 
lovely wildings of nature by the people of different parts and 
various nations; and in that portion of his work entitled 
“ Children and Flowers,” tenderly portrays the influence exer¬ 
cised upon youth by floral association—an association which, 
though deadened perchance in after life by too close intercourse 
with the human world, some little flowerets may at any time re¬ 
call the memory of, and cause a longing to renew “ the covenant 
his childish heart with nature made;” but, alas ! too late, for how 
few but will be forced to exclaim with Praed, of these blooms: 
