PREFACE. 
In these rhyming days, when almost every one 
lays claim to some acquaintance with the muse, 
vanity can hope so little from the distinction 
of authorship, that the writer of the following 
pages would humbly trust some better feeling 
has induced her to offer them to the public. 
Many of the pieces were written long before 
the subject of Flowers was so fashionable as 
it has now become. They owe their origin, in 
fact, to the request of a friend who wished for 
a few poetical sketches to accompany her own 
drawings; and the appearance of one of them 
(how obtained the writer is not aware) in a 
little work of the day, first suggested the idea 
that, if collected into one volume, they might 
possibly be acceptable to many readers, from 
