52 
LANGUAGE AND 
this country; but, alas! despite its supreme 
loveliness , this flower, unlike its European rival 
queen, the rose, has no fragrance! 
This beautiful blossom, expressing Thou art 
my heart's sovereign , was first introduced into 
Europe in 1639, and derives its name from a 
Jesuit monk, Joseph Kamel, or as it is gene¬ 
rally Latinized into, Camellus. 
Did Jean Ingelow have these magnificent 
floral pets in her poet mind when she sang: 
“ These are buds that fold within them 
Closed and covered from our sight, 
Many a richly-tinted petal, 
Never looked on by the light” ? 
And did this same gifted poetess mean that it 
was the richly-tinted petals of these stars of 
evening, which uttered their “songs without 
words” to some admired human flower, at those 
intoxicating hours when a sound of revelry was 
faintly heard floating out of the heavily scented 
ball-room into the still more fragrant silence of 
the conservatory? 
“And that they whose lips do utter 
Language such as bards have sung, 
Though their speech shall be to many 
As an unknown tongue.” 
These lovely flowers, as Mrs. Sigourney says, 
“Put forth such blaze of beauty as translates 
To dullest hearts their dialect of love.” 
