THE LANGUAGE OF FLOWERS. 
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perfect. Around each mass of bloom the light plays 
and is decomposed into a thousand varying shades, 
which, all melting into one tint, make that happy har¬ 
mony which dazzles the beholder and drives the painter 
to despair. 
“ The lilac, various in array, now white, 
Now sanguine, and her beauteous head now set 
With purple spikes pyramidal, as if, studious of ornaments, 
Yet unresolved which hues she most approved, 
She chose them all.” 
Cowper. 
The lilac symbolizes the first emotions of love, because 
its tender green, its flexible slioots, and its abundant 
flowers, with their tender and varied colors, all recall 
those celestial emotions which lend to youth a divine 
grace. 
ALMOND (Amygdalas communis). Heedlessness. 
Emblem of heedlessness, the almond answers first to 
the call of spring, and covers itself with a shower of 
blossoms, like rosy snow, while all the shrubbery is yet 
leafless. Virgil makes it prophesy of the harvest to 
come. Fable gives the almond tree this origin. De- 
mophoon, son of Theseus and Phaedra, returning from 
the siege of Troy, was thrown by a tempest on the coast 
of Thrace, where the beautiful Phyllis then reigned. 
The young queen welcomed the prince, loved him, and 
made him her husband. Recalled to Athens by the 
death of his father, Demophoon promised Phyllis to 
