184 
LANGUAGE OF FLOWERS. 
TUBEROSE. 
DANGEROUS PLEASURES. 
This superb child of the East, to which Lin- 
neus gave by way of eminence the epithet Po- 
lianthes, from two Greek words signifying a 
town and a flower, because it is generally culti¬ 
vated and sold in towns, was first brought from 
Persia to France in 1632. It was then but 
single, and double flowers were not produced 
till long afterwards by a skilful florist of Leyden, 
named Lecour. It has since spread over all the 
world. In Russia, indeed, it flowers only for 
sovereigns and the great; but it has become 
naturalized in Peru, where it grows without 
culture, and unites with the glowing nastur¬ 
tium to' adorn the bosom of the American 
beauty. 
The flower of the Tuberose, which grows on 
the top of a very tall, slender stem, is of a 
white colour, sometimes tinged with a blush of 
pink. Its perfume is delicious, rich, and power- 
