20 
LANGUAGE OF FLOWERS. 
tongue cannot always venture to give utterance. 
Every flower seems naturally to present some 
particular emblematic meaning; and, in the 
combination of a garland or nosegay, it is no 
difficult matter to compose a riddle, the solution 
of which may afford an agreeable exercise to 
the fancy. 
If, for example, a lady should receive from 
her lover a bouquet consisting of roses, lilies, 
laurel, and forget-me-not; the meaning of the 
present might be thus interpreted : the flower 
of innocence, when kissed by the rose, blushes 
as thou wouldst blush at the approach of love; 
the proud laurel denotes thy beauty’s triumph ; 
and the tender forget-me-not is the emblem of 
eternal constancy. 
The idea of rendering flowers the vehicle 
of a lover’s sentiments has been thus happily 
seized by one of our early English poets:— 
Aske me why I send you here 
This firstling- of the infant yeare ; 
Aske me why X send to you 
This Primrose all bepearl’d with dew; 
I strait will whisper in your ears. 
The sweets of love are waslit with tears. 
