PREFACE. 
Vll 
were expressed by them, and that there were flowers 
to represent hope, love, grief, joy, care, fear, hatred, 
and every other sentiment; and that the acceptance or 
refusal of a proffered flower had great effect on the one 
presenting it, as we find in a passage in the Bride of 
Abydos, where Selim allows the rose offered by Zulei- 
ka to remain untouched, which leads her to exclaim— 
“What! not receive my favourite flower? 
Nay, then I am indeed unblest.” 
In the West, too, we read of the homage paid and sen¬ 
timents attached to trees and flowers ; and among the 
numerous instances we find the reward of the victor 
was the laurel, and the chaplet of the poet the bay; 
palms were the emblem of triumph—cypress of mourn¬ 
ing—and the holly of festivals. We are told of the 
respect paid to the oak by our Roman and British 
ancestors, and the solemnity with which the Druids 
regarded the misletoe and the crab apple ; and the 
superstitions attached to several others, as the black 
poplar and the Rowan tree. 
In the Language of Flowers— 
“ The rose is a sign of joy and love,— 
Toung blushing love in its early dawn, 
And the mildness that suits the gentle dove. 
From the myrtle’s snowy flower is drawn. 
“ Innocence shines in the lily’s bell. 
Pure as the heart in its native heaven; 
Fame’s bright star, and Glory’s swell. 
By the glossy leaf of the bay is given. 
