INTRODUCTION. 
IX 
—and in all seasons, of love, and purity, and peace. To 
these, the simple expressions of natural feeling, have been 
added from time to time, from the pages of classic poetry 
and the more complex fancies of later writers, a series of 
ideas attached to every flower, by means of which the nose¬ 
gay may be made to take the place of more formal epistles. 
For the more complicated uses of this beautiful language, 
a few hints may be necessary to show how extensive is 
the range of thought its alphabet may communicate. For 
example: if a flower be given reversed, it implies the 
opposite of that thought or sentiment which it is ordinarily 
understood to express ; again, a rosebud from which the 
thorns have been removed, but which has still its leaves, 
conveys the sentiment, “ I fear, but I hope,”—the thorns 
implying fear, as the leaves hope; remove the leaves and 
thorns, and then it signifies, “ There may be neither hope 
nor fear;”—while, again, a single flower may be made 
emblematical of a variety of ideas: a rosebud that has 
been already used and deprived of its thorns, says, “There 
is much to hope; ” but stripped of its leaves also, it tells, 
“ There is everything to fear.” The expression, also, of 
almost any flower may be varied by changing its position. 
Place the marigold upon the head, for instance, and it 
signifies “ distress of mind; ” on the bosom, “listlessness.” 
And, it may be added, when a flower is given, the pronoun 
