PREFACE. 
IX 
To me England has ever been an island “full of 
sweet sounds that give delight and hurt not:” 
and I think that a nation so rich in poetry as 
ours, should not be without its own Language 
of Flowers. Better believe in the messages the 
bees brought from the flowers on Mount Hy- 
mettus, when they settled upon the lips of Plato, 
and foretold that there slept the eloquence which 
would one day charm the world ; or endeavour 
to trace fanciful letters in the wavy lines and 
mazy forms which they sometimes assume, as 
they streak the green hill-side, than find in them 
no meaning at all—that the blossoms still send 
tidings abroad, which when once whispered into 
the ear settle down noiselessly into the hearts of 
all who believe in the poetry, and beauty, and 
love of the flowers. 
Although my Index of the emblematic mean¬ 
ings of the flowers varies considerably from that 
which is appended to the French work before 
referred to, still I doubt not that it will be found 
more accurate, and that the reasons I have given 
for adopting the emblems attached to the flowers 
are clearer and more comprehensive than any 
that have hitherto appeared. In every floral 
index which I have seen, the Meadow-sweet, or 
