INTRODUCTION. 
‘ 15 
fair inventresses of the oriental language of 
flowers. They have contented themselves with 
merely taking a word which may happen to 
rhyme with the name of any particular flower 
or fruit, and then filling up the given rhyme 
with some fanciful phrase corresponding with 
its signification. The language therefore con¬ 
sists not of individual words, but of whole 
phrases ; and a flower or fruit expresses an idea 
suggested by -the word with which its name 
happens to rhyme. Thus, for instance, the word 
Armonde (Pear) rhymes among other words 
with Omonfle (hope); and this rhyme is filled 
up as follows : — “ Armonde — Wer bana bir 
Omonde(Pear—Let me not despair.) 
The Turkish dialect, being rich in rhymes, 
presents a multitude of words corresponding in 
sound with the names of flowers, or any other 
objects that may be selected; but these rhymes 
are not all admitted into the language of flowers, 
and the knowledge of this language consists in 
being acquainted with the proper rhyme. The 
vocabulary is not extensive, for the whole lan¬ 
guage scarcely exceeds a hundred signs and 
phrases. The celebrated orientalist, Mr. Von 
