Introduction. 
ii 
in perfumed silence, and there is tenderness, and passion, and 
even the lightheartedness of mirth, in the variegated beauty of 
their vocabulary.No spoken word can approach to the 
delicacy of sentiment to be inferred from a flower seasonably 
offered : the softest expressions may be thus conveyed with¬ 
out offence, and even profound grief alleviated, at a moment 
when the most tuneful voice would grate harshly on the ear, 
and when the stricken soul can be soothed only by unbroken 
silence.” Of this latter state, how truly hath the poet said : 
“ When we are sad, to sadness we apply 
Each plant, and flower, and leaf, that meets the eye.” 
That flowers do serve to speak “ thoughts that lie too deep 
for tears ” cannot be doubted ; for not only have poets made 
use of them to portray their intense passions, but even the 
untutored savage woos his heart’s chosen treasure with floral 
symbols, or defies his antagonist with emblematic blooms. 
“ Flowers do speak a language, clear and intelligible,” says the 
talented authoress of “Flora Domestica:” “observe them, reader, 
love them, linger over them ; and ask your own heart if they 
do not speak affection, benevolence, and piety.” Do not flowers, 
lovely flowers, respond to the questionings of our hearts in a 
language more powerful, and far more expressive, than that of 
the tongue ? Even more potent than the poet’s magic lay, 
‘ ‘ They pour an answering strain, that never 
Could be awoke by minstrel skill; ” 
and their perfumed response 
“ The rarest melody is that ever 
Stirr’d human hearts to bless and thrill.” 
Poor Letitia Landon, in her poem of “ The Poetess,” while tell¬ 
ing the “ History of the Lyre,” exclaims— 
“The flowers were full of song: upon the rose 
I read the crimson annals of true love; 
The violet flung me back an old romance; 
All were associated with some link 
Whose fine electric throb was in the mind.” 
Tennyson, in his ever-questioning philosophy, may ask, 
“Oh, to what uses shall be put 
The wild weed flower that simply blows? 
