16 
LANGUAGE OF FLOWERS. 
Hammer, collected from the Greek and Ar¬ 
menian women who are permitted to visit the 
harems many of the phrases of this curious 
language, which have been published, with a 
French and German translation, in the Miscel¬ 
lany entitled “ Mines of the East.” 
In India, which may be regarded as the cradle 
ot poetry, we are informed that it is customary 
to express, by the combination of flowers, those 
sentiments of the heart which are regarded as 
too refined and sacred to be communicated 
through the common medium of words. The 
young females of Amboyna are singularly inge¬ 
nious in the art of conversing in the love-lan¬ 
guage of flowers and fruits. Yet this language, 
like that employed in Turkey and in other 
parts of the East, bears no resemblance to that 
with which we have hitherto been acquainted 
in Europe ; though, according to the received 
notion, we were indebted for our first know¬ 
ledge of this language to the Crusaders and to 
pilgrims who visited the Holy Land. 
In early times it was customary in Europe to 
employ particular colours for the purpose of ex¬ 
pressing certain ideas and feelings. The ena- 
