Introduction. 
5 
be seen palpable proof that every single bloom employed in 
the manufacture of wreaths and garlands was intended to im¬ 
part some particular meaning. 
“Surely,” says Sir Thomas Browne, “the heathen knew 
better how to join and read these mystical letters, than we 
Christians, who cast a more careless eye on these common 
hieroglyphics, and disdain to suck divinity from the flowers of 
nature.” 
That these heathen did know how to interpret the meaning 
of “ these mystical letters,” evidence has already been adduced; 
and, although in many dissertations on the language of flowers 
it has been stated that it was first made popular in Europe by 
Lady Mary Wortley Montague, there are abundant proofs that 
it was well understood and used from the earliest ages by many 
continental nations. After the decay of Latin imperialism, 
and until the dawn of the Renaissance, this delightful and at¬ 
tractive study was doubtless little known ; but in the age of 
chivalry and of the preeminence of the Romish faith it revived, 
and, for a time, floral significations again held sway. The 
Catholic was enabled to distinguish between fasting and fest¬ 
ive ceremonies by the variety of the bouquets that adorned the 
altar before which he offered up his orisons, and ofttimes the 
knight was enabled to manifest his devotion by wearing his 
lady’s colours in his casque, and the lady frequently showed in 
what light she regarded his attention by the nature of the 
blooms she wore. 
The love of flowers is felt and acknowledged by everybody, 
and in every land : it is a theme for every one, a feeling in 
which all can coincide : the polished European or the untu¬ 
tored Australian ; the philosopher or the savage, all are ready 
to admire and to praise. So universal a feeling—a feeling 
doubtless coeval with man’s existence upon this globe—could 
not fail to be taken advantage of, and made subservient to, the 
passions of mortality; and to us it appears the most natural 
thing in the world that flowers should have been made em¬ 
blematic and communicative agents of our ideas. In all 
countries of this globe, and in all ages, flowers are seen em¬ 
ployed for symbolic and decorative purposes. In a suggestive 
passage in his “Account of the Island of Ceylon,” Sir James 
E. Tennant speaks of the people even there offering up heca- 
