8 
INTRODUCTION. 
lay before us, and even a flower could borrow most 
brilliant colors from the imagination. Who does not 
recall with pleasure 
“ The flowers, the many flowers 
That all along the smiling valley grew, 
While the sun lay for hours 
Kissing from off their drooping lids the dew.” 
Oh ! there is something in such remembrances that 
even in hours of depression and sorrow, can brighten 
the dim eye and ease the wearied mind, bringing a fund 
of innocent and pure enjoyment. Flowers are types 
of our brightest hopes, they are emblems of joy, they 
have been even called “ the alphabet of angels.” And 
the harmony of their colors, the variety of their forms, 
the profusion with which they are scattered over 
every solitary place, make us consider them as fragrant 
gems of the earth, beautiful ministers of winged and 
spiritual thoughts. In the language of poetry, they 
are called by one of our American poets, Professor 
Longfellow, 
“ The flowers, so blue and golden, 
Stabs, that in Earth’s firmament do shine. 
“ Wondrous truths, and manifold as wondrous, 
God hath written in those stars above ; 
But not less in the bright flowerets under us, 
Stands the revelation of his love. 
