INTRODUCTION. 
3 
The intermixture of nettles requires no com¬ 
ment. 
Admitting the correctness of this interpreta¬ 
tion, the whole is an exquisite specimen of em¬ 
blematic or picture-writing. They are all wild 
flowers, denoting the bewildered state of the 
beautiful Ophelia’s own faculties ; and the order 
runs thus, with the meaning of each term be¬ 
neath : 
Crow-flowers. Nettles. Daisies. Long-purples. 
Fayre Mayde 
Stung to Her virgin Under the cold 
the quick bloom hand of death. 
“ A fair maid stung to the quick ; her virgin bloom 
under the cold hand of death.” 
It would be difficult to find a more emblematic 
wreath for this interesting victim of disappointed 
love and filial sorrow. 
Flowers, the emblems and favourites of the 
fair, are not every where prized merely for their 
beauty and their perfume; invention has created 
from them symbolic phrases for expressing the 
secret sentiments of the heart. This language 
is most generally used by the Turkish and Greek 
women in the Levant, and by the African fe¬ 
males on the coast of Barbary. 
