TULIP. 
71 
TULIP. 
DECLARATION OF LOVE. 
In the East the Tulip is employed as the 
emblem by which a lover makes a declaration 
of love; presenting the idea that, like that 
flower, he has a face all on fire and a heart 
reduced to a coal— 
Whose leaves, with their ruby glow, 
Hide the heart that lies burning and black below. 
On account of the elegance of its form, the 
beauty of its colours, but its want of fragrance 
and other useful qualities, this flower has been 
considered as an appropriate symbol of a female 
who possesses no other recommendation than 
personal beauty. 
It is supposed , to have been brought from 
Persia to the Levant, and it was introduced 
into western Europe about the middle of the 
sixteenth century, by Busbeck, ambassador 
from the Emperor of Germany to the Porte; 
who, to his astonishment, found Tulips on the 
road between Adrianople and Constantinople, 
