INTRODUCTION. 27 
Sorrowful Tree, though it is less beautiful. It 
blooms only in the day time, thus presenting an 
emblem of those persons who seem created only to 
enjoy the garish light of day, and who suffer the 
luminaries of night to diffuse their serener radiance 
unheeded and unseen. 
Though we dwell not on the luxuriant banks 
of the Tigris, where, in the spring, the whole ' 
country exhibits the appearance of a richly varie¬ 
gated and perfumed flower-bed: yet even in the 
less fertile regions of the North the gifts of Flora 
are sufficiently abundant and diversified to enable 
us to create from them a language for the expres¬ 
sion of those sentiments to which the 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 inno¬ 
cence, when kissed by the rose, blushes as thou 
