The want of a well arranged and comprehensive col¬ 
lection of the names of Flowers and their Expressions, in 
a small compass, has prompted the preparation of this 
little book. 
Both the common and the botanical names of plants, 
have been given, for the sake of exactness, whenever it 
has been thought there might be doubt otherwise. 
The best authorities have been examined in relation to 
the expressions, and where differences were found to exist, 
the meanings most appropriate or those bearing the best 
authority have been adopted. 
The number of plants mentioned, is greater than in any 
similar list and, the names of some new ones will be 
found, the expressions and sentiments of which are here 
given, for the first time, in accordance with those princi¬ 
ples of the philology of this sweet tongue briefly explained 
in the first few pages. 

4 
The selections of poetry introduced are derived from 
the best sources of English literature and are strictly m 
illustration of the subject. 
Since the issue of the first edition, which has met with a 
welcome reception, the whole has been thoroughly revised 
and re-arranged, and much interesting matter added, thus 
improving its appearance and enhancing its value. In its 
new form it is again sent on its mission and, if what is 
here offered may be the means, in any way, of assisting 
taste in the use of flowers expressively, or, of adding 
zest to simple pleasures, the end sought will have been 
C. W. S. 
attained. 
14 —not words, for they 
But half can tell love’s feeling ; 
Sweet flowers alone can say 
What passion fears revealing, 
A once bright rose’s wither’d leaf, 
A tow’ring lily broken,— 
O these may paint a grief 
No words could e’er have spoken.” 

from 
Ijr n 
ilha 
rid 
tins 
nits 
at is 
ting 
ling 
«n 
The history of the Language of Flowers like that of 
spoken language, dates back to the earliest recorded times 
of our race. 
In our sacred writings the Olive branch signifies peace.; 
in most languages Corn has always been synonymous with 
riches ; the Willow has meant mourning ever since the 
time, the captive Israelite, by the rivers of Babylon, utter¬ 
ing his plaints, laid by his harp attuned only to joyful 
notes and, sighed for the land of his birth. 
“ By the rivers of Babylon there we sat down, yea, we 
wept when we remembered Zion, and we hanged our 
harps on the willows in the midst thereof.” 
At equally as remote a period we find the Rose to be 
the emblem of love, and the Lily of womanly .grace ; the 
Cedar has been typical of excellence and endurance, and 
Grass of degradation and submission; “therefore their 

THE FLOWER LANGUAGE. 
* 
“T^ by the “ ci “ l 
nations have employed the tree m 
3”r‘.'=r==“5 
- <~r • * tSSS SKSS 
thSqStyS&e signification of certain plants derived 
f Thi mycologies of various nations have contributed 
largely to the attachment of meanings and sentimen 
llT^tNynpl, Echo died of grief because he would 

THE FLOWER LANGUAGE. 7 
not reciprocate her affection. One of his rejected admirers 
begged Nemesis to punish him, and the goddess caused 
him to fall in love with his own figure in a spring. Under 
the influence of this passion he pined away, and after 
death was changed into the flower which bears his name.” 
Morpheus was the god of dreams, and was always re¬ 
presented, wearing a crown of Poppies. 
The plant, Andromeda, receives its language or signifi¬ 
cation (self-sacrifice) from its name, for Andromeda was a 
mythical, virgin princess who, to satisfy the predictions of 
an oracle and to avert some calamities, was condemned to 
be chained to a rock and left a prey to the sea-monster. 
Most of the species of this genus are confined naturally to 
bogs or moist earth. 
Philemon and Baucis, his wife, were Phrygians and, it 
was said, they cordially entertained Jupiter and Mercury, 
who came to them, one day, while traveling in disguise, 
and after they had been refused hospitality everywhere 
along their route. 
Afterwards, these gods, in punishment of those who had 
been so inhospitable to them, caused a deluge to destroy 
them, but Baucis and Philemon were saved from the 
general doom. 
In answer to their entreaties to transform their cottage 

8 THE FLOWER LANGUAGE. 
into a temple, in which they could act as priest and priest¬ 
ess, the gods granted their request. 
At last they exprqgsed a wish to die together, and 
Jupiter gratified them by changing them simultaneously 
into trees. 
Baucis, it is said, was changed into a Linden tree, and 
Philemon into an Oak. . 
The names of Baucis and Philemon are used to signify 
faithful and true married people. Here we perceive why 
the Linden is the emblem of conjugal love, and the Oak 
of hospitality. 
The language of the common Almond is stupidity or 
heedlessness. 
The foundation for this is, no doubt, from the story told 
of Demophoon, who, returning from the siege of Troy, 
encountered a storm, and was thrown upon the coast of 
Thrace, the realm of the beautiful Phyllis. 
The young queen fell in love with the prince, and made 
him her husband. 
The death of his father soon after, caused Demophoon 
to return to Athens, but he promised Phyllis to be back in 
a month. When the day for his arrival came, Phyllis 
ran nine times to the shore, and, as he did not come, she 
lost all hope and, falling dead of grief, she was changed 

THE FLOWER LANGUAGE. g 
into an Almond tree. After three months Demophoon 
returned. 
It is unnecessary to continue further these illustrations 
which, however interesting they may be, are forbidden by 
our narrow limits. 
Often the meaning of a flower has been attached to it 
by its name, either its common or its botanical name ; as 
instances of this sort, may be mentioned Bachelor’s Button, 
Balm, Branch of Thorns, Cardinal Flower, Coronilla, 
Hawkweed, Heliotrope. • 
Many others of this kind will readily suggest themselves 
to the thoughtful student of this pleasant language. 
Again the meaning comes from some quality or charac¬ 
teristic of the plant; the sharpness of the thorns of the 
Berberry; and the acidity of its berries indicate sharpness 
of temper, and the unequally-sided leaves of the Begonia, 
suggest deformity ; the movements of the Sensitive plant 
almost make our nerves quiver at its apparant sensitive¬ 
ness. 
Sometimes the meaning is derived from the uses of the 
plant, as in an instance or two we have already had. 
Fate for Hemp requires no explanation, nor Frugality for 
Chicory, nor Health for Iceland Moss, so, also, we find 

IO THE flower language. 
Prohibition for Privet, since the Privet or Prim has been 
always used for hedges. 
Often the mode of growth of a plant, or, the shape of 
its leaves or flowers, or, the color or some quality which 
it possesses, determines its signification. 
As a rule, plants with poisonous properties are expres¬ 
sive of bad qualities or sentiments, for example : Helle¬ 
bore, scandal; Blue Lobelia, malevolence; Aconitum 
napellus, an enemy in disguise ; American Laurel, false¬ 
hood, treachery, &c.; this rule, however, is not invariable 
and the converse of it is by no means true. 
Sometimes, when a plant is named after a person, some 
strong characteristic of the person is applied to the plant, 
as in the case of Rondeletia. This plant was named in 
memory of Wm. Rondelet, a scientific physician of the 
16th century, who disgustingly evinced his devotion to 
anatomy by dissecting the body of his own son after death. 
From what has been said, it is evident that the formation 
of the flower language has been gradual—a growth like 
spoken languages of all nations, not an arbitrary investi¬ 
ture. In its growth, like spoken languages, too, it has 
been slow at times and at others when unusual attention 
and interest have been concentrated upon it, it has in¬ 
creased with greater rapidity. 

IT 
THE FLOWER LANGUAGE. 
Poets have always found in flowers the highest objects 
of admiration, and, in their descriptions and allusions to 
them, the imagination has had free flight. They have at¬ 
tributed to them all the passions and thoughts of the 
human mind and heart, and made them express almost 
every human virtue and folly. 
“ Round every flower there gleams a glory, 
Bequeathed by antique song or story • 
To each old legends give a name, 
And its peculiar charm proclaim. 
O’er smiling lawn, through shady grove, 
Our dreaming poets pensive rove, 
And strive to read their language rare, 
And learn the lesson latent there.” 


FLOWERS BY THE POETS. 
i3 
ORIGIN OF THE YELLOW ROSE. 
ONCE a white Rose-bud reared her head, 
And peevishly, to Flora said : 
“ Look at my sister’s blushing hue— 
Pray, mother, let me have it too!” 
“ Nay, child,” was Flora’s mild reply, 
Be thankful for such gift as I 
Have deemed befitting to dispense— 
Thy dower’s the hue of innocence.” 
When did persuasion’s voice impart 
Content and peace to female heart, 
Where baleful jealousy bears sway, 
And scares each gentler guest away ? 
The Rose still grumbled and complained ; 
Her mother’s bounties still disdained— 
“ Well, then,” said angered Flora, “ take ”— 
She breathed upon her as she spake : 
“ Henceforth, no more in simple vest 
Of innocence shalt thou be dressed ; 
Take that which better suits thy mind, 
The hue for jealousy designed.” 
The Yellow Rose has, from that hour, 
Borne evidence of Envy’s power. 
CARDINAL FLOWER. 
Lobelia attired like a queen in her pride. 
Mrs. Sigourney. 

14 
FLOWERS BY THE POETS. 
THE FEAST OF ROSES. 
A happier smile illumes each brow, 
With quicker spread each heart uncloses. 
And all in ecstacy—for now 
The valley holds its feast of Roses ; 
The joyous time, when pleasures pour 
Profusely round and, in their shower. 
Hearts open, like the Season’s Rose,— 
The flow’ret of a hundred leaves 
Expanding while the dew-fall flows, 
And every leaf its balm receives. 
Lalla Rookh. 
BUDS OF ROSES. 
Buds of Roses, virgin flowers, 
Cull’d from Cupid’s balmy bowers. 
* * * * 
Rose, thou art the sweetest flower 
That ever drank the amber shower. 
Rose, thou art the fondest child 
Of dimpled Spring, the wood-nymph wild. 
Odes of Anacreon. 
PASSION FLOWER. 
And the faint Passion Flower, the sad and holy, 
Tell of diviner hopes. Hemans. 

FLOWERS BY THE POETS. 
UNDER THE ROSE. 
They sat in the porch together, 
Angry and pale and still, 
And watched, in gloomy silence, 
The moon rise over the hill. 
The fault of the foolish quarrel 
If his or hers, who knows ? 
The strangest things will happen 
Under the rose! 
A little stir in the shadow 
Shook down a drop of dew. 
That, out of a bud half open. 
Fell just between the two. 
If both of them turned together 
With a sudden start, who knows ? 
There is many a little rustle 
Under the rose ! 
He pulled from the vines at random 
A cluster over her head, 
Leaning a little nearer— 
To see if the rose was red ; 
If other roses reddened 
Within his reach, who knows ? 
One dare not say what happens 
Under the rose. 
Kate Putnam Osgood. 

ib 
FLOWERS BY THE POETS. 
THE MOSS ROSE. 
The angel of the flowers one day, 
Beneath a rose-tree sleeping lay,— 
That spirit to whose charge ’tis given 
To bathe young buds in dews of heaven ; 
Awaking from his light repose, 
The angel whispered to the rose : 
“ O fondest object of my care, 
Still fairest found, where all are fair ; 
For the sweet shade thou giv’st to me 
Ask what thou wilt, ’tis granted thee.” 
“ Then,” said the rose, with deepened glow. 
“ On me another grace bestow.” 
The spirit paused, in silent thought, 
What grace was there that flower had not ? 
’Twas hut a moment,—o’er the rose 
A veil of moss the angel throws, 
And, robed in Nature’s simplest weed, 
Could-there a flower that rose exceed ? 
Krummacher. 
THE ROSE AND THE LILY. 
Of. love the type, of beauty queen, 
We own the Rose ; but by her side 
In spotless purity serene 
The Lily stands with modest pride. 
Miss Landon. 


i8 
FLOWERS BY THE POETS. 
THE DAY WHEN I FORGET YOU. 
Oh, darling ! all the Pansy blooms, 
Lulled into rest by sweet perfumes. 
Will die amid the woodland glooms, 
The day when I forget you. 
The stars will falter when they cross 
The blue above, and sudden loss 
Will fill the hours with bitterest dross, 
The day that I forget you. 
The sunshine will not touch that day, 
The green hill nor the rippled bay ; 
But all the world will walk in gray, 
The day when I forget you. 
For you, if not for those you know. 
The heart will fill and overflow 
In bitter tears that hurt us so, 
The day when I forget you. 
But, Oh, love ! that will never be l 
My heart will hold your memory 
As shells keep singing of the sea ; 
I never shall forget you. 

FLOWERS BY THE POETS. 
Here’s Rosemary leaf and Pansy blue ; 
They’ll tell you that I will be true 
To memory, darling, and to you, 
And never will forget you. 
Even lying under grass or snow, 
When summer’s winds or winter’s blow 
Above the heart that lies below, 
I never shall forget you. 
Come to my grave and you will see 
A Pansy ; and the bloom shall be 
A message, love, to you, from me, 
That I have not forgot you. 
MY PANSIES. 
Open your eyes, my Pansies sweet— 
Open your eyes for me, 
Driving away, with face so true, 
The chilling wind and wintry hue, 
That lingers so drearily. 
Open your eyes, my Pansies sweet— 
Open your eyes for me. 
Where did you get that purple hue ? 
Did a cloudlet smile as you came through, 
Did a little sunbeam bold 
Kiss on your lips that tint of gold ? 
Tell me the mystery. 
1 9 

20 
FLOWERS BY THE POETS. 
In your eyes a story I read— 
A story of constancy. 
After the storms and winter’s wind, 
Softly you came with influence kind; 
Then as I bend with listening ear, 
Your cheerful voice I plainly hear, 
Preaching a sermon to me. 
So whisper to me, my Pansies sweet— 
Tell me in rustlings low, 
Of that beautiful land where fadeless flowers 
Brightly bloom in immortal bowers, 
And no blighting wind doth blow. 
Tell of the care that is over all — 
That gives you your garments gay ; 
Whose loving hand clothes the floweret small, 
That grows in the field, or by the garden wall, 
Whose life is only a day. 
Yes, tell of the love, my Pansies sweet— 
Of the love that knows no end ; 
That through earth’s winter safely keeps 
Watch over his children, and never sleeps ; 
The love that paints the violet blue. 
And quenches your thirst with drops of dew, 
The weary heart’s faithful friend. 
Marie. 

FLOWERS BY THE POETS. 
21 
DAISY. 
iall, 
1t». 
With little here to do or see 
Of things that in the great world be. 
Sweet Daisy ! oft I talk to thee, 
For thou art worthy. 
Thou unassuming common-place 
Of nature, with that homely face. 
And yet with something of a grace, 
Which Love makes for thee ! 
* * * * 
Sweet silent creature ! 
That breath’st with me in sun and air, 
Do thou, as thou art wont, repair 
My heart with gladness, and a share 
Of thy meek nature ! 
Wordsworth. 
PANSY. 
A little purple flower, 
And maidens call it Love-in-idleness. 
Shakspeare. 
Pray you, love, remember 
There’s Pansies—that’s for thought. 
Shakspeare. 


FLOWERS BY THE POETS. 
23 
TS. 
THE ENCHANTRESS’ SONG. 
The Enchantress now begins her spelt, 
Thus singing as she winds and weaves 
In mystic form the glittering leaves :— 
I know where the winged visions dwell 
That around the night bed play ; 
I know each herb and flow’ret’s bell 
Where they hide their wings by day. 
Then hasten we, maid, 
**, 
To twine our braid, 
To-morrow the dreams and flowers will fade. 
L 
The image of love, that nightly flies 
To visit the bashful maid, 
Steals from the Jasmine flower, that sighs 
Its soul, like her, in the shade. 
The dream of a future, happier hour, 
That alights on misery’s brow, 
Springs out of the silvery Almond flower, 
That blooms on a leafless bough. 
Then hasten we, maid, 
To twine our braid, 
, To-morrow the dreams and flowers will fade. 
Lalla Rookh. 
ROSEMARY. 
There’s Rosemary, that’s for remembrance 
Pray you, love, remember. Shakspeare. 

24 
FLOWERS by the poets. 
THE FORGET-ME-NOT-A LEGEND. 
Two lovers, strolling forth one Sabbath e’en, 
Sought the cool river-side, and smiled and talked 
As lovers do ; 
When, suddenly, upon a ledge of rock 
O’erhanging them, the bright-eyed lady spied 
A floweret blue. 
“ Oh, lovely flower !” ’twas thus Lucille exclaimed— 
“ Tinted with ‘heaven’s own peculiar hue,’ 
How sweetly fair ! 
What can it be ? Could it be gained with ease, 
I’d dearly love to twine a sprig of it 
Within my hair.” 
“ It shall be thine,” the daring lover cried, 
And, ere she. could prevent the deed, he sprang 
Upon the ledge ; 
Selecting some for the pale, trembling maid, 
Who watched with fear that swaying shelf above 
The water’s edge. 
“ Alas !” she cried, “ I’ve periled his dear life 
To gratify my fancy for a flower, 
Alas ! I have.” 
In vain he strove to safely overleap 
What destiny before him placed that day, 
A glassy grave. 

FLOWERS BY THE POETS. 
3n vain : for soon the crumbling rock gave way 
Beneath his weight, leaving small mark to trace 
The tragic spot; 
But, ere the waters closed above his head. 
His loved one heard him murmur low the words, 
“ Forget me not,” 
And saw, through tears, a tiny shower of blue 
Thrown by the hand she never more might clasp. 
Then with sad moan. 
She treasured his last keepsake, which since then, 
Has by the words his dying lips pronounced, 
Been ever known. 
Mrs. George R. Lee. 
AMARANTH. 
Immortal Amaranth ! a flower which once 
In paradise, fast by the tree of life 
Began to bloom. * * * * 
Milton. 
HELLEBORE. 
By the watcher’s tower, 
Where Hellebore and Hemlock seem to weave 
Round its dark vaults a melancholy bower. 
Campbell. 

26 
FLOWERS BY THE POETS. 
A NEW LEGEND OF THE FORGET-ME-NOT. 
The mythological story upon which the following poem U found¬ 
ed is one of unusual interest and is briefly related thus r-Psyche 
was the daughter of a king and queen, and the youngest o ree 
sisters. Her beauty was wonderful-people came from all parts m 
throngs to see her, and altars were erected to her, and she was 
worshipped as a second Venus. At this the Queen of Love was 
irritated, and ordered her son, Cupid, to inspire Psyche with a 
passion lor some vile wretch. The sisters of Psyche, who were 
L inferior to her in charms, were married, but she remained single 
and despised her own beauty. Her father consulted the oracle of 
Aoollo, and was ordered to expose her on a rock, where she woul e 
carried away by a monster. The oracle was obeyed, and while 
the whole populace wept, Psyche was placed on a lofty crag. Here, 
while she sat weeping, a zephyr gently raised and carried her to a 
charming valley. Overcome by grief she fell asleep, and, on 
awakening, found herself near a fountain in the midst of a grove 
and in front of a splendid palace. Venturing into the palace she 
was lost in admiration of its grandeurs ; when, suddenly, she heard 
a voice.telling her that all there is hers, and that her commands 
will be obeyed. She bathes, partakes of a rich repast, and is regaled 
with music by invisible performers. At night she retires, and an 
unseen youth addresses her in the softest accents, and she becomes 
lus bride. She desires of her invisible spouse that her sisters may 
come to see her ; he consents and an obedient zephyr conveys them 
there. They becomo-envfous of Psyche’s happiness, and persuade 
her idiat her invisible lord is a serpent, who will finally devour her. 

FLOWERS BY THE POETS. 
27 
By their advice she attempts to destroy him with a razor, and, 
when he was asleep, she approached his couch for this purpose ; but 
there she beheld, instead of a dragon, Love himself. Filled with 
amazement at his beauty, she lean c i in rapture over him, but he 
awoke and flew away. Psyche caught at him as he rose, and was 
raised into the air, but fell ; and as she lay, the god reproached her 
from a Cypress for her breach of faith. The abandoned Psyche 
now roamed through the world in search of Cupid, and is persecuted 
and subjected to numerous trials by Venus. This goddess, bent on 
her destruction, despatches her to Proserpina, with a box in which 
to procure some of her beauty. Psyche accomplishes her mission in 
safety ; but, as she is returning, she ventures to open the box to 
take a portion for herself, and, behold! instead of beauty there issues 
from it a black echalation and Psyche falls to the ground in deep 
slumber from its effects. In this state she is found by Cupid, who 
had escaped by the window of the chamber where he had been con¬ 
fined by his mother : he awakens her with the point of one of his 
arrows, and then proceeds to the palace of Jupiter to interest him 
in his favor. Jupiter takes pity on her and endows her with im¬ 
mortality ; Venus is reconciled, and the marriage of Psyche with 
Cupid takes place amid great joy in the skies. 
When Psyche lost her love, the Lord of Love, 
Weeping, alone she wandered, 
Listless, by every well known field and grove, 
And on her lost love pondered. 

FLOWERS BY THE POETS. 
Lastly by Lethe’s stream her footsteps strayed ; 
And “ Oh !” she said in sighing, 
“ That I might dip, and my past life be made 
Like dreams with daylight dying l” 
The big tears, from her blue eyes raining down. 
Fell on earth’s pitying bosom ; 
Sudden there sprang, amid the sedges brown, 
Blue as her eyes a blossom. 
And o’er her head, soft rustling, sweet and low. 
As though some bird’s wing fluttered, 
In those loved tones whose loss was all her woe, 
“ Forget me not ” was uttered. 
No more ; no sight, no touch: these words alone : 
And “ Ah !” she cried, “ forget thee ? 
Nay, hut half love in our glad life was known— 
Half love to regret thee.” 
“ Forget thee ? Nay, these flowers my tears begot 
Shall be to me a token 
Of love ; they shall be called Forget-me-not, 
The name to cheer me spoken.” 
So well, sweet river-flowers, we welcome you, 
Earth with faint sadness scenting— 
Born of the tears from Psyche’s eyes of blue, 
For her lost love lamenting. 
F. W. B., London Spectator. 

FLOWERS BY THE POETS. 
WHITE AZALEAS. 
E 9 
Azaleas— whitest of white ! 
White as the drifted snow 
Fresh-fallen out of the night. 
Before the coming glow 
Tinges the morning light, 
When the light is like the snow, 
White, 
And the silence is like the light;— 
Light, and silence, and snow,— 
All-white J 
White ! not a hint 
Of the creamy tint 
That a rose will hold 
(The whitest rose) in its inmost fold, 
Nor a possible blush ; 
White as an embodied hush ; 
A very rapture of white, 
A wedlock of silence and light. 
White, white, as the wonder undefiled 
Of Eve just wakened in Paradise: 
Pure as the angel of a child 
That looks into God’s own eyes. 
Harriet M’Ewen Kimball. 

(After Goethe’s “ Haiden-Roslein.”) 
Saw a boy three Lilies white, 
Lilies iji the river, 
Half heart open to the light. 
Full of golden arrows bright, 
Each a silver quiver. 
Lilies, Lilies, Lilies white, 
Lilies in the river. 
Said the hoy, “ I’ll pluck you there, 
Lilies in the river 1” 
Said the Lilies, “ If you dare 
You shall drown, or homeward fare 
Dripping and ashiver 1” 
Lilies, Lilies, Lilies white, 
Lilies in the river. 
Willful still the boy would clasp 
Lilies in the river ; 
Tumbled in ere he could grasp, 
Scrambled out with puff and gasp, 
Plucked no Lilies ever. 
Lilies, Lilies, Lilies white, 
Lilies in the river. 
F. W. Bourdillon. 

FLOWERS BY THE POETS. 
3 * 
THE VOICE OF THE GRASS. 
Here I come creeping, creeping everywhere, 
By the dusty roadside, 
On the sunny hillside, 
Close by the noisy brook, 
In every shady nook, 
I come creeping, creeping everywhere. 
* * * * 
Here I come creeping, creeping everywhere ; 
You cannot hear me coming 
Nor hear my low sweet humming ; 
For, in the starry night, 
And the glad morning light, 
I come quietly creeping everywhere. 
* * * * 
Here I come creeping, creeping everywhere ; 
My humble spng of praise 
Most joyfully I raise 
To Him at whose command 
I beauty the land, 
Creeping, silently creeping everywhere. 
Sarah Roberts. 
LILY OF THE VALLEY. 
The Lily in whose snow-white bells 
Simplicity delights and dwells. 
Balfour. 

3 * 
FLOWERS BY THE POETS. 
VIOLETS. 
Welcome, maids of honor! 
You do bring 
In the spring, 
And wait upon her. 
She has virgins many, 
Fresh and fair; 
Yet you are 
More sweet than any. 
Y’ are the maiden posies 
And, so graced, 
To be placed, 
’Fore the Damask Roses. 
* * * 
Robt. Herrick. 
VIOLET. 
Violet is for faithfulness 
Which in me shall abide ; 
Hoping, likewise, that from your heart 
You will not let it slide. Shakspeare. 

FLOWERS BY THE POETS. 
33 
MOSS. 
Strange tapestry, by Nature spun 
On viewless looms, aloof from sun, 
And spread through lonely nooks and grots 
Where shadows reign, and leafy rest,— 
O moss, of all your dwelling-spots, 
In which one are you lovelist ? 
Is it when near grim roots that coil 
Their snaky black through humid soil ? 
Or when you wrap, in woodland glooms, 
The great prone pine-trunks, rotted red f 
Or when you dim, on sombre tombs, 
The “ requiescats ” of the dead ? 
Or is it when your lot is cast 
In some quaint garden of the past. 
On some gray, crumbled basin’s brim, 
With conchs that mildewed Tritons blow, 
While yonder, through the poplars prim, 
Looms up the turreted chateau ? 
Nay, loveliest are you when time weaves 
Your emerald films on low, dark eaves, 
Abqve where pink porch-roses peer, 
And woodbines break in fragrant foam, 
And children laugh,—and you can hear 
The beatings of the heart of home. 
Edgar Fawcett. 

The name, Heliotrope, is derived from the Greek, Helios, the 
Sun, and tropo, I turn. The flowers of the Heliotrope, like those 
of the Sunflower, have a slight motion during the day towards the 
sun as it passes from east to west. 
The Heliotrope said to the sun, 
“ I love but thee, 
And evermore I turn my face 
Where thou may’st be.” 
The sun sent down a mellow beam 
Without a care 
Whether it fell on stream or flower, 
Or earth so bare. 
And the sun said, “ I shine serene 
On every one, 
I love the earth and all therein. 
Love me, the sun !” 
The Heliotrope bent down its head, 
“ Ah, woe is me ! 
I care not for the earth,” it said, 

FLOWERS BY THE POETS. 
J 5 
JACK IN THE PULPIT. 
Under the green trees just over the way, 
Jack-in-the-pulpit preaches to-day ; 
Squirrel and song sparrow, high on their perch, 
Hear the sweet Lily-bells ringing to church. 
Come hear what his reverence rises to say 
In his queer little pulpit this fine Sabbath day. 
Fair is the canopy over him seen, 
Painted by Nature’s hand black, brown and green. 
Green is his pulpit, and green are his bands, 
In his queer little pulpit the little priest stands. 
In black and gold velvet, so gorgeous to see, 
Comes with his bass voice the chorister bee ; 
Green fingers playing unseen on wind lyres, 
Bird voices singing, these are his choirs. 
The violets are deacons, I know by this sign, 
The cups that they carry are purple with wine. 
The Columbines bravely as sentinels stand 
On the lookout with all their red trumpets in hand. 
Meek-faced Anemone drooping and sad, 
Great yellow Violets smiling out glad. 
Buttercups’ faces beaming and bright, 
Clovers with bonnets, some red, and some white ; 
Daisies, their fingers half clasped in prayer, 
t) Dandelions, proud of the gold of their hair. 

Innocents, children, guileless and frail, 
Their meek little faces upturned and pale ; 
Wildwood Geraniums all in their best, 
Languidly leaning in purple gauze dressed ; 
All are assembled this sweet Sabbath day 
To hear what the priest in his pulpit will say. 
Lo, white Indian pipes on the green mosses lie ; 
Who has .been smoking profanely, so nigh ? 
Rebuked by the preacher the mischief is stopped, 
But the sinners in haste have their little pipes dropped ; 
Let the wind with the fragrance of Fern and Black Birch 
Blow the smell of the smoking clear out of the church. 
So much for the preacher, the sermon comes next; 
Shall we tell how he preached it and where was the text ? 
Alas, like too many grown up folks who pray 
Or worship in man-builc^pd churches to-day, 
We heard not the preacher expound or discuss ; 
We looked at the people and they looked at us ; 
We saw all their dresses, their colors and shapes, 
The trim of their bonnets, the cut of their capes ; 
We heard the wind organ, the bee and the bird, 
But of Jack-in-the-pulpit we heard not a word. 
J. G. Whittier. 

FLOWERS BY THE POETS. 
mignonette. 
“ Your qualities surpass your charms.” 
I passed before her garden gate ; 
She stood among her roses, 
And stooped a little from the state 
In which her pride reposes, 
To make her flowers a graceful plea 
For luring and delaying me. 
“When summer blossoms fade so soon, 1 ' 
She said with winning sweetness, 
“ Who does not wear the badge of June 
Lacks something of completeness. 
My garden welcomes you to-day, 
Come in and gather, while you may.” 
I entered in : she led me through 
A maze of leafy arches, 
Where velvet-purple Pansies grew 
Beneath the sighing larches,— 
A shadowy, still, and cool retreat 
That gave excuse for ling’ring feet. 
She paused, pulled down a trailing vine, 
And twisted round her finger 
Its starry sprays of Jessamine, 
As one who seeks to linger. 
But I smiled lightly in her face, 
And passed on to the open space. 

FLOWERS BY THE POETS. 
Passed many a flower-bed fitly set 
In trim and blooming order, 
And plucked at last some Mignonette 
That strayed along the border ; 
A simple thing that had no bloom, 
And but a faint and far perfume. 
She wondered why I would not choose 
That dreamy Amaryllis,— 
“ And could I really, then, refuse 
Those heavenly White Lilies 1 
And leave ungathered on the slope 
This passion-breathing Heliotrope ?” 
She did not know—what need to tell 
So ftiir and fine a creature ?— 
That there was one who loved me well 
Of widely different nature ; 
A little maid whose tender youth, 
And innocence, and simple truth, 
Had won my heart with qualities 
That far surpassed her beauty. 
And held me with unconscious ease 
Enthralled of love and duty ; 
Whose modest graces all were met 
And symboled in my Mignonette. 

39 
FLOWERS BY THE POETS. 
I passed outside her garden-gate, 
And left her proudly smiling : 
Her roses bloomed too late, too late, 
She saw, for my beguiling. 
I wore instead—and wear it yet_ 
^he single spray of Mignonette. 
Its fragrance greets me unaware, 
A vision clear recalling 
Of shy, sweet eyes, and drooping hair 
In girlish tresses falling, 
And little hands so white and fine 
That timidly creep into mine. 
As she—all ignorant of the arts 
That wiser maids are plying— 
Has crept into my heart of hearts 
Past doubting or denying ; 
Therein, while suns shall rise and set, 
To bloom unchanged, my Mignonette ! 
Mary E. Bradley. 
EVENING PRIMROSE. 
A tuft of Evening Primroses, 
aer which the wind may hover ’till it dozes • 
O er which it well might take a pleasant sleep, 
But that 'tis ever startled by the leap 
Ot buds into npe flowers. 
Keats, 


i 
w, 
SfOBS 
reja 
Perhaps no one has written more pleasingly and wittily 
on this subject than Leigh Hunt, in the following lines, 
called 
THE ALBANIAN LOVE-LETTER. 
An exquisite invention this, 
Worthy of Love’s most honied kiss. 
This art of writing billet-doux 
In buds, and odors and bright hues,— 
In saying all one feels and thinks 
In clever Daffodils and Pinks ; 
In puns of Tulips, and in phrases 
Charming for their truth, in dasies ; 
Uttering, as well as silence may, 
The sweetest words the sweetest way. 
How fit, too, for the lady’s bosom ! 
The place where billet-doux repose ’em. 
What delight, in some sweet spot 
Combining love with garden plot, 
At once to cultivate one’s flowers 
And one’s epistolary powers ! 
Growing one’s choicest words and fancies 
I" orange tubs and beds of Pansies ; 

FLORAL CONVERSATION. 
One’s sighs and passionate declarations 
In odorous rhetoric of Carnations ; 
Seeing how far one’s stocks will reach, 
Taking good care one’s flowers of speech 
To guard from blight as well as bathos. 
And watering, every day, one’s pathos. 
A letter comes, just gathered. We 
Doat on its tender brilliancy ; 
Inhale its delicate expressions 
Of balm and pea, and its confessions, 
Made with as sweet a Maiden's Blush 
As ever morn bedew’d on bush, 
(’Tis in reply to one of ours, 
Made of the most convincing flowers,) 
Then, after we have kissed its wit 
And heart, in water putting it, 
(To keep its remarks fresh,) go round 
Our little eloquent plot of ground, 
And with enchanted hands compose 
Our answer, all of Lily and Rose, 
Of Tuberose and of Violet, 
And Little Darling, (Mignonette) 
Of Look-at-me and Call-me-to-you, 
(Words, that while they greet, go through you). 
Of Thoughts, of Flames, Forget-me-not, 
Bridewort, in short the whole blest lot 
Of vouchers for a life-long kiss, 
And literally breathing bliss. 

FLORAL CONFERS A TION. 
43 
THE OLD GARDENER’S STORY. 
I will tell you, if you please, a simple story—a mere 
incident, in fact — which occurred many years ago in the 
family I serve, but which made at the time a great excite¬ 
ment among us, and may still, I hope, prove interesting 
to you. 
Through the solemn avenue of cedars which leads to 
our mausoleum, I have followed three dukes to the grave. 
The second of these, at one period of his life, was most 
austere and haughty. I may speak of his faults, although 
he is dead, because he lived to hate them, and to cast 
them from him ; and I have no hesitation in enlarging 
upon them, as the circumstances of my story prompt. 
Well, then, he was just the proudest, coldest, most dis¬ 
agreeable duke that ever stalked (“stalk, to walk with 
high and superb steps,” says Dr. Johnson) over the earth. 
It was a positive insult to the English language to call so 
much ungraciousness “ your grace.” We gardeners used 
to declare that the thermometers fell twenty degrees when¬ 
ever he walked through the houses ; and that the water 
froze in the tanks and cisterns. We were prepared to 

affirm that when he put on his coronet the strawberry 
leaves turned into ice-plants. Indeed, we all of us found 
a relief and comfort in this harmless kind of ridicule, just 
as schoolboys most delight to mimic the master who rules 
the most unkindly over them. It was a natural and pleas¬ 
ant rebound from the constraint and awful abasement to 
which his presence reduced us. * * * * 
Now this iron duke, you will be surprised to hear, had 
actually condescended to marry. Of course, if Cupid had 
not been blindfold, he would no more have thought of 
taking aim at him than a schoolboy of shooting his favor¬ 
ite arrow against the wall of a fives-court, and how that 
promiscious young archer made his dart to stick in the 
ducal granite must remain for ever among the “thingsnot 
generally known.” Never since Eve had the world seen 
such a proof of love’s omnipotence, as when he sent our 
grim lord a-courting. No weaker influence ever could 
have taught that cold pale face to smile, to smile and to 
beam with a happy brightness, as the snow sparkles in 
the sun. But how he ever remembered her name, or 
brought himself to proffer those little tendernesses, which 
are usual upon these occasions—those touches of nature 
which make the whole world kin—is to me a complete 
perplexity, an unreality as astonishing as though I were to 

FLORAL CONVERSATION. 
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45 
see the ghost of Hamlet’s father with his arm round the 
waist of Jessica. 
Poor Jessica ! she came to us as joyous as a thrush in 
summer, and she sang awhile blithely and sweetly in the 
tomb of Hamlet’s father. But when he resumed, as he 
shortly did, his old sepulchral ways, a chill struck the 
heart of our singing-bird, and all her mirthful music was 
changed into a plaint and wail. She had come from a 
home of love and cheerfulness, and she drooped in his 
arctic atmosphere, as an Orchid would droop in an ice¬ 
house. 
“ For a trouble weighed upon her, 
And perplexed her night and morn, 
With the burden of an honor, 
Unto which she was not born.” 
Six years after her marriage-day, they bore her slowly 
through the dark avenue of cedars, and the chaplain came 
in his white surplice to welcome her with words of hope 
and peace. 
Three children were born to them. The marquis, who 
soon showed himself to be a true “chip of the old (ice) 
block, ’ ’ and a ghostling of amazing promise ; Lord Evelyn 
and the Lady Alice, who, happily for us all, resembled 
their mother. Never were two brothers so urtljke each 

4 6 FLORAL COAtVERSATtON. 
other. I doubt whether the elder ever broke out of a 
walk or into a laugh in his life, whereas the younger 
would be scampering all over the place, with his little sis¬ 
ter breathless behind, and his merry voice making our 
hearts glad. Now they were in the conservatory, chang¬ 
ing the tallies, and sticking the fallen flowers of the 
Camellia upon the Euphorbia's thorns ; now turning out 
a lot of sparrows, which they had caught in traps, and 
adorned with appendages of brilliant worsted, red, green, 
and yellow, in the immediate neighborhood of the aviary, 
and so essaying to impose upon us the idea of a general 
escape and dispersion of all our feathered curiosities ; and 
now “drawing ” the shrubberies, with Lord Evelyn at one 
end as master of fox-hounds, and Lady Alice at the other 
as an under-whip, waiting, watchful and silent, for the 
fox to break, which he generally did in the guise of a 
blackbird ; and then announcing his exit with the prompt¬ 
est and shrillest of “ tally-hos. ” Our marquis the while 
was indoors at his books, having, it was reported, a pre¬ 
cocious relish for algebra, and an insight into the science 
of political economy not often to be found (thank Heaven) 
in young gentlemen of fourteen. 
Years passed. There was some misunderstanding be¬ 
tween the marquis and the Cambridge examiners on the 

FLORAL CONVERSA TION. 
47 
subject of his being Senior Wrangler, and the duke, after 
hearing his son’s statement, was pleased to pronounce that 
the Dons were “offal.” Lord Evelyn went into the 
Guards, and I shall never forget him on his first return 
from London, after an absence of six months from the cas¬ 
tle. I was at tea in the lodge when his mail-phaeton 
drove up, and was hardly out of the porch, when his 
hearty “How are you, Oldacre?” drew my eyes to the 
handsomest, merriest, kindliest face that ever wore a 
moustache. And sitting by him was a brother officer, just 
the man you would have expected that my lord would 
choose for his friend, looking as though he would go at 
anything from an ox-fence to a redan, and yet would do 
no wilful hurt, as though his heart, like Tom Bowling’s, 
was brave and yet soft, and he was, in the full beauty of 
its meaning, a gentle man. I went back to my wife, who 
had Frank Chiswick’s wife, a baby, on her knee, and I 
said to her, “Susan, my lord’s come, and has brought 
home a husband for Lady Alice.” “I’ll believe it,” she 
answered, “ when I see his wings ! for the duke must have 
something more than mortal to suit his fancy in son-in- 
laws.” 
The deer having scampered away from the carriage 

48 
FLORAL CONVERSATION. 
road, alarmed at the unusual sound of Lord Evelyn’s 
merry laugh, had turned, and were still gazing in aston¬ 
ishment at the phaeton going up the park, when another 
equipage reached the entrance gates, containing two oc¬ 
cupants, almost as upright, and quite as cold, as the 
pillars through which they passed. These were our 
noble marquis and a friend of his (“ The Viscount,” as he 
was afterwards called by us ; Lord Evelyn’s friend being 
known as “ The Captain,”) very much resembling himself, 
both in the pallor of his countenance and in the haughty 
reserve of his demeanor. There they sat, straight and 
gloomy as a brace of Irish yews, which could not raise a 
berry—that is, a smile, between them. * * * 
After a short visit, the marquis and Lord Evelyn went 
away with their friends ; and rumors reached us from the 
servants’ hall, that the latter had left a brace of hearts be¬ 
hind them, in custody of my Lady Alice. The duke, it 
was said, regarded with complete approbation the suit of 
the viscount, who was heir to an ancient and wealthy earl¬ 
dom ; but the daughter preferred the guardsman. 
That there was some special attraction at the castle for 
these young gentlemen was evident from the fact that they 
both revisited it a few months after their departure, to- 

FLORAL CONVERSATLON. 4 g 
gether with a great number of other guests, who were in¬ 
vited to celebrate the coming of age of our marquis. And 
now comes a chief event in my story. A grand ball was 
to end the festivities, and all the recources of our immense 
establishment were to be taxed to the utmost, as they say 
at the circus, to make the entertainment a success. We 
gardeners were busily engaged, I can assure you, in col¬ 
lecting and preparing all our eligible plants from the 
houses, carrying them to the castle, and arranging them 
in the halls, ball-room, &c. The demand for cut flowers, 
upon the day of the ball, was (so my father, then the head 
gardener, pronounced it) murderous; flowers for the re¬ 
ception-rooms, flowers for the supper-table, flowers for the 
hair, flowers for the hand, and flowers for the gentlemen’s 
coats. 
As I was at that time head foreman in the plant depart¬ 
ment, the care of the great conservatory was entrusted to 
me during the night of the ball. I was to replace any of 
the low flowering plants, which formed an edging to the 
circular beds, and which might be disarranged by the trail¬ 
ing garments of the ladies ; to supervise the fountains, 
which were ac times eccentric in their behaviour ; to keep 
an eye upon the colored lamps, &c. When the guests 
came into the conservatory, I was to retire behind a stage 

FLORAL CONVERSA TLOX. 
50 
for plants at the end of the building, where I should be 
effectively concealed within my leafy bower. 
Here, without any attempt or desire to listen, I over¬ 
heard from time to time the remarks of those who were 
passing near, and I was specially impressed by the floral 
instruction which I received for the first time on that oc¬ 
casion. One gentleman intormed his partner that the 
berries of the Solanum were “ a kind of Siberian crab 
another, that tne Tulip, Rex rubrorum, was a “ double 
Poppy a third, that Eucharis amazonica was “one of 
those lovely orchids and a fourth (a lady) exclaimed in 
admiration, as she gazed upon a bush of Cytisus, “ What 
a dear little duck of a young laburnum !” But there were 
other flowers that night, which, even in Flora's presence, 
were more admired than ours — Heartsease and Forget-me- 
nots in the blue eyes of Beauty, Roses blushing and glow¬ 
ing on her cheeks, Lilies and Tulips upon her— 
“ Hands, lily-white, 
Lips, crimson-red,” 
much more fascinating than those which we showed in 
pots. In foliage we sustained a like defeat. They turned 
from our Croton angustifolium to the shining tresses of 
some Pair One with the Golden Locks, and tney saw no 

FLORAL CONVERSATION. 
5i 
charms in our Adiantum Capillus-veneris, when compared 
with the maiden-hair of Venus’s self. 
The ball was nearly over. The carriage-lamps of the 
departing guests were gleaming amid our ancient oaks, as 
though some of the planets had come down to earth, and 
my own special lamps, within their bright pictorial cases, 
were also beginning to take their departure, when, as I re¬ 
tired to my ambuscade, on hearing voices, the guardsman, 
with Lady Alice on his arm, approached, and stopped 
close in front of it. I saw them through the leaves, the 
handsomest man and the most beautiful woman of all who 
met there that night. It was not only that they were both 
tall and graceful in figure, with features regular and re¬ 
fined, the eyes bright, and the cheeks glowing with all the 
healthfulness and hopefulness of youth ; but there was in 
both faces that which I would term heart-beauty ; there 
was goodness, gentleness, and truth. And yet as “ these 
two, a maiden and a youth, stood there, gazing,” or seem- 
mg to gaze, upon an orange tree covered with its blossoms, 
I noticed upon both the expression of a strange and sad 
perplexity. For a while they were silent, and then the 
soldier said : “ I am going in a few hours. I must speak 
to you. Would you—would you exchange those ” (and 

5* 
FLORAL CONFERS A TION. 
he looked at the roses in her waving golden hair) ; “would 
you change them for these ” (and he touched one of the 
orange-flowers) — “ for my sake—for me ?” 
I shall never forget that beseeching voice. It thrilled 
me through with the anxiety which it expressed, and I 
leaned forward to hear the answer : “ I—I — I believe 
that I am engaged to the viscount.” Then for a few 
awful seconds there might have been in that conserva¬ 
tory no living soul, for there was no sound save of dis¬ 
tant music, faintly heard from the ball. At last he 
spoke with a great effort: “I have no right to ask you ; 
but do you'love him?” and she, in a tone which cut 
my heart like a knife, replied, “My father, the duke, 
wishes me to marry him.” “ Not,” he said passionately, 
“if you do not love him!” and then there was another 
dreadful silence, broken by these hopeless, whispered 
words, “I cannot, I dare not, disobey the duke. Some 
one is coming ; we must go.” 
I do not think that the guardsman knew quite what 
he was doing, but what he aid do was this: he pluck¬ 
ed a leaf from the orange tree, and gave it to her, and 
said, “ If ever there is hope for me, or I can help you, 
send me this leaf.” 

FLORAL CONVERSATION. 53 
Then others joined them, and they went their way. I 
stayed there, mute and motionless, thinking what cruel 
tyranny it was to crush those young loving hearts, until a 
footman came to say that the ball was over ; and then I 
hurried home, weary and sorrowful ; and I remember that 
before I went to bed that night I prayed that she might 
send him the leaf. But Mrs. Oldacre, from whom I never 
had a secret, declined to regard the circumstances as be¬ 
coming subjects for doubt or petition. She sniffed at my 
solicitude with a grand disdain, “because I know," she 
said, “ that he will have the leaf.” 
Of course, we kept the secret sacredly ; but Phyllis, my 
wife’s sister, and maid to the Lady Alice, seemed to us to 
know as much as we did. She was ever sounding the 
Captain’s praise, or speaking of his rival in anything but 
respectful terms, alluding to him as “that galvanised 
mummy,” and expressing her belief that he had been 
placed as a boy in a petrifying well, and been imprudently 
taken out before the process was complete. “ And though 
I dare not speak my mind to his lordship,” she said, “ I 
have had the pleasure of telling his valet that we don’t 
intend to marry a snow man.” 
Nevertheless, we heard, to our great unhappiness, that 
the wedding-day was fixed. The announcement was pain- 

54 FLORAL CONVERSATION. 
ful to most of us, but it seemed to have the strongest and 
the strangest influence upon our sister, Phyllis. She would 
no longer speak of that which had been her one topic of 
conversation. She had a nervous manner and an anxious 
look. Sometimes she would laugh almost hysterically, 
and sometimes, my wife told me, she would come to her 
in a paroxysm of grief and tears, for which she would 
assign no cause. 
Then another strange incident happened to me. The 
evening before our annual county flower show, I had been 
occupied until it was almost dark, in tying and packing a 
collection of stove and greenhouse plants, which I was 
going to exhibit, when, in taking a short cut from the 
kitchen gardens across the park to my home, I passed over 
the long walk, which is a continuation of the grand terrace, 
and extends for nearly a mile through our woodland 
grounds ; ten yards from me, but in such earnest conver¬ 
sation that they never heard my steps, I saw two figures, 
and, dim as the light was, I was quite certain that I knew 
them. I almost ran the rest of my way, and, in a fever of 
excitement, I whispered to my wife, “ Lady Alice has sent 
him the leaf.” 
She received my information not only with disbelief, but 
derision, and next day she sent for her sister Ptiyllis, to 

FLORAL CONVERSA TION. 3.3 
assist her in disbelieving. They said it was simply im¬ 
possible. * * * Finally, after reiterating for 
the (as nearly as I can guess) forty-second time, that I had 
seen nothing, they implored, they insisted, that I should 
never reveal to living creature that which I had seen ; and 
I gave them at last my promise to keep a secret, which 
nothing upon earth could have tempted me to tell. * * 
The marriage morning came. On the day preceding I 
had decorated the church as sorrowfully almost as though 
it had been for her funeral, and at sunrise I had arranged 
a bouquet ; it was composed of Stephanotis, Pancratium, 
Gardenia, and white-rose buds, which I had mourned over 
as if for her coffin. “ And so,” I sighed to myself, “ the 
leaf went, and the lover came ; and yet there was neither 
help nor hope.” 
The events of the day, as we ascertained afterwards, 
were these : you will see that they require no commentary. 
The party at the castle was to assemble in the library at 
II a. m.; to leave the castle at 11:15, and to meet the 
Viscount at the church. 
At 9 a. m., Lady Alice’s favorite cousin, and chief 
brides-maid, went to see her, and was met at her dressing- 
room door by Phyllis, who told the young lady that her 

5b floral conversation. 
mistress had passed a restless night and had just fallen 
asleep. 
At io a. m., on a second visit, the cousin was informed 
by the maid that Lady Alice would rather not see any one 
until she came down for the marriage. 
At ii a. m., the guests, with the family, met in the 
library. 
At 11:15, a dozen carriages, three of them having four 
horses, and two with outriders, drew up in front of the 
castle. 
At 11:25, the duke sent a servant to inform the Lady 
Alice that he hoped she would come down at once. 
At 11 =30, the servant returned, to inform the duke that 
“ her ladyship was not to be found !” 
Then the duke calmly requested that her ladyship’s 
maid should be sent to him in his morning-room. 
And, after a long interval, the report was brought to him 
that '■'•her ladyship's maid was not to be found!" 
Then some one discovered, on Lady Alice’s writing- 
table, a note to her father, the duke. It was, so Phyllis 
informed us, to this effect : that she had pleaded in vain 
that she did not love the Viscount - that it could not be 
right that her whole life should be turned into a lie - that 
it should be a life of hatred when it might be a life of love 

FLORAL CONFERSA FLOAT. s7 
—that she was gone with him, who had won her heart, to 
be his wife and that she implored her father to forgive 
her for her mother’s sake. 
The duke turned very pale, and the duke sighed very 
heavily, when he had read the note, as well, with his 
views, he might. His only daughter was travelling as fast 
as four horses could take her, and had been travelling for 
six hours as fast as four horses could take her, to marry a 
younger son. 
Then his grace wrote a few lines to the Viscount, who 
was waiting for his bride. 
“ The church was decked at even tide, 
The morn was bright and fair, 
And priest and bridegroom wait the bride. 
But ne’er a bride was there. 
They sought her, baith thro’ bower and ha’— 
The ladye was ne’er seen, 
For she’s o’er the border, and awa’ 
Wi’ Jock o’ Hazeldean.” 
And once “ o’er the border ” (I may as well state here), 
they were married in conformity with Scotland’s usage, 
that they might be man and wife, should pursuers over¬ 
take, according to secular law, and subsequently, that they 
might be so according to the laws of their Church and 
conscience, by an ordained priest. 

5 8 floral conversatlon. 
Three hours alter the Viscount had read his note, all the 
visitors had left the castle : and in it and around “ gnm 
silence held her solitary reign.” The only person who 
passed through our entrance gates with a cheerful counte¬ 
nance (my wife informed me) was my Lord Evelyn. He 
was just as beaming with mirth and kindness as ever. 
“ Sad business,” he said, “ Mrs. Oldacre ; bad business- 
disgraceful business,” with a broad grin on his face. And 
then he began to sing something (Mrs. O. continued) about 
a way they had in the army, or words to that effect. 
Yes, they all fled from that stern and stricken duke, as 
though they were seized with a sudden fear that he was 
going to bark and bite them. True indeed it was that 
then, and for many after days, his , grace was not good 
company. He was seen only by those who waited upon 
him, and their report of his melancholy was very pitiful. 
What think you happened next ? 
“ My friends,” said the good old gardener, with tears in 
his kind blue eyes, “ it pleased God in his goodness, by 
that great humiliation to change, and, as I believe, to save 
one of His creatures. Some three weeks after the crisis, 
the duke left the castle for the first time, and went to the 
mausoleum. He remained there so long that some of the 
household were beginning to be alarmed, when he came 

FLORAL CONVERSATION. 
59 
quietly home, and sent a note to his chaplain, with whom 
shortly afterwards he had a two hours’ interview. We 
have always thought that he made then a first and full 
confession. He was from that time, at all events, an 
altered man. He sent not only his pardon to his daughter, 
but a fatherly invitation to her old home ; and she came 
with her husband, and wich gladness for all our hearts.” 
This reconciliation, the first fruit of that victory which 
he had won over self, soon brought its great reward,partly 
in the fact that the handsome guardsman succeeded ^gainst 
all expectation to the headship of his house a peerage, 
with large estates—but chiefly in his daughter’s grateful 
love. 
We will leave him, if you please, as I once saw him,and 
as ever since I have liked best to think of him, plucking an 
orange for his grandchild, little Alice, from the very tree 
whereupon grew the leaf. Rev. S. R. Hole. 


FLORAL CONVERSA TION. 
bi 
IV. —Good wishes, remember me. 
FLOWERS. 
Sweet Basil, . . . Good wishes. 
Pansy, . . . . . Remembrance. 
V. — Your coquetry will bring you to grief. 
FLOWERS. 
Dandelion, . . . Coquetry. 
Harebell, . . . Grief. 
VI. — I distain a fop. 
FLOWERS. 
Yellow Carnation, . Disdain. 
Cockscomb, . . .A fop. 
VII. —Your bravery and patriotism deserve our grati¬ 
tude. 
FLOWERS. 
Oak leaves, . . Bravery, 
nalwfflt Nasturtium, . . . Patriotism. 
White Bellflower, . . Gratitude. 
VIII. —Let the bonds of marriage unite us. 
FLOWERS. 
1 Blue Convolvulus, . Bonds. 
>1 ffOP T ,, 
Ivy, . , . . Maraage. 
A few whole.straws, . Union (unite'us),;; 


6j 
FLORAL CONVERSATION. 
with XIV. — Your egotism and insincerity will cause you to 
be forsaken of all. 
FLOWERS. 
Narcissus, . . . Egotism. 
Foxglove, . . . Insincerity. 
Anemone, . . . Forsaken. 
Ibya The above examples are quite sufficient to show what 
may be done. Those attempting to express themselves in 
this way will soon become expert and a greater amount of 
conversation may be carried on than would appear possi¬ 
ble at first thought. 
RULES. 
Rule i.—If a flower be given reversed, its original signi 
fication is understood to be contradicted, and the opposite 
meaning to be implied. 
Rule 2. — Yes is naturally expressed by touching the 
flower received with the lips. 
Rule 3.— No is expressed by pinching off a petal or some 
small part and casting it away. 
IU y Rule 4. — The meaning of a flower may be used as a 
naun, as a verb or as an adverb, as may be convenient. 
Example : — The Flowering Almond expresses hope , but in 
connection with some other flower it may be hopefully or 
to hope in any tense. 

t 4 FLORAL CONVERSATION. 
Skill in the use of expressions will be gained by practice. 
Most frequently, and probably most effectively, a single 
flower, or a flower or two and a leaf, will serve the ends 
of conversation. 
In this way the presentation of a little boquet to be worn 
• n the button-hole of the coat or on the dress or in the 
hair may have a charming significance unknown except to 
those interested in it. 
In the engraving 
here of a small but¬ 
ton-hole boquet,we 
have the Tuberose 
and a leaf of the 
the Rose Geranium, 
expressing a com¬ 
pliment of the high¬ 
est order. 
Almost any sen¬ 
timent may be dis¬ 
tinctly expressed in 
this simple manner. 
A greater num¬ 
ber of flowers may 
be combined in a 

FLORAL CONVERSATION. 
li¬ 
very small compass, 
as in. the illustration 
of the beautiful little 
boquet here presented 
and, of course, its com¬ 
position must be effect¬ 
ed quite as much with 
a view to unity and 
distinctness of expres¬ 
sion as to harmony of 
colors and grace of 
form. 
Too great a variety 
in so small a compass 
is not desirable nor is 
the expression as definite—better to have one or two 
flowers of positive colors and then form and all else 
should be merely delicate sprays used to give a light and 
graceful appearance to the whole. 

FLORAL CONVERSATION. 
THE LANGUAGE OF FLOWERS. 
In Eastern lands they talk in flowers, 
And they tell in a garland their loves and care* 
Each blossom that blooms in their garden bowers 
On its leaves a mystic language bears. 
The Rose is a sign of joy and love— 
Young blushing love in its earliest dawn ; 
And the mildness that suits the gentle dove. 
From the Myrtle’s snowy flower is drawn. 
Innocence shines in the Lily’s bell, 
Pure as the light in its native heaven ; 
Fame’s bright star and glory’s swell, 
In the glossy leaf of the Bay are given. 
The silent, soft, and humble heart, 
In the Violet’s hidden sweetness breathes 
And the tender soul that cannot part, 
A twine of Evergreen fondly wreathes. 

FLORAL CONFERSA FLOAT. 
67 
The Cypress, that daily shades the grave, 
Is sorrow that mourns her bitter lot; 
And Faith, that a thousand ills can brave, 
Speaks in the blue leaves, Forget-me-not 
Then gather a wreath from the garden bowers, 
And tell the wish of thy heart in flowers. 
Percival. 
SECRET CORRESPONDENCE. 
Persons writing to each other may use the flower language 
as a sort of secret correspondence, by employing the names 
of the flowers for their equivalent expressions. The fol¬ 
lowing specimen will serve as an example : 
Wormwood has no Crown Imperial on Bittersweet 
Myrtle. You know I have a Mandrake of Bilberry, Musk 
plant upside down ! Liverwort we are Mountain Ash. 
Banish all Marigolds, and Pansy only of the Holly of our 
Nutmeg Geranium. 
Translated this will read : 
Absence has no power on true love. You know I have 
a horror of treachery. No weakness ! Have confidence, 
and we are secure. Banish all grief, and think only of 
the happiness of our meeting. 


uses fa 
jIqjim 
Many opportunities are offered for the skilful use of 
flowers emblematically on certain special occasions. 
Thanksgiving Day, which is now observed nationally, 
affords fine scope for floral decorations, and particularly in 
the churches about the pulpit or altar or other parts of the 
chancel. At such a time all kinds of bright flowers can be 
used, but specially appropriate are boquets and decorations 
of carefully preserved grasses and stalks of grain, such as 
wheat, barley, oats and rye, and a skilful hand might in¬ 
troduce, in proper places, ears of bright golden corn or 
maize. The tall stalks of com, too, with the half-declin¬ 
ing partly husked ears, may be brought into use. And so 
also in the cotton regions very fine effects may be produced 
with the stems of the cotton plant, with their little sprigs 
all covered with the opening bolls of white cotton—inter¬ 
mingling with these some bright colored berries and green 
leaves and a scene almost fairy-like may be produced. 

FLORAL DECORATIONS. 
70 
The fact is, ingenuity, skill and taste can force into service 
what would otherwise pass unnoticed. 
Fruit of all kinds can be made up into handsome dishes 
or shallow baskets and placed in full sight, low down. 
Whatever is attempted in this way, however, should be on 
no meagre scale —a poor display instead of admiration 
would excite only contempt, —the expression should be 
that of abundance and variety. The feast is a feast of 
harvests, and the products of the husbandman and the gar¬ 
dener’s toil indicate with precisioii the nature of the 
celebration. 
In reference to this festival Whitier appropriately writes: 
Once more the liberal year laughs out 
O’er richer stores than gems of gold ; 
Once more with harvest song and shout 
Is nature’s bloodless triumph told. 
Our common mother rests and sings, 
Like Ruth, among her garnered sheaves ! 
Her lap is full of goodly things, 
Her brow is bright with autumn leaves. 
Who murmurs at his lot to-day ? 
Who scorns his native fruit and bloom ? 
Or sighs for dainties far away, 
Beside the bounteous board of home ? 

FLORAL DECORATLONS. 
7i 
Thank heaven, instead, that freedom’s arm 
Can change a rocky soil to gold— 
That brave and generous lives can warm 
A clime with northern ices cold. 
And let these altars wreathed with flowers 
And piled with fruits, awake again 
Thanksgiving for the golden hours, 
The early and the latter rain ! 
Very pleasing wreaths may be made by intermingling 
grain and evergreens ; wheat, barley, oats and rye may be 
used, either one or all kinds in the same wreath—take 
about a dozen heads of one kind of grain and plait it into 
a little bunch, then do the same with each kind used : as 
the bits of evergreen are wound upon the ring, cord or 
flexible rod which forms the base of the wreath, the 
bunches of grain should be woven in, at regular intervals 
and in proper rotation of each kind, so that when the 
wreath is suspended the grain hangs out a fringe along the 
bottom to the widest part—the upper part of the wreath 
can be tastefully set off with everlasting flowers. 
A very handsome “ harvest sheaf” may be made by 
carefully arranging stalks of wheat into little bundles of a 
handful each, and the same way with oats and barley. 

7 2 FLORAL DECORATIONS. 
These little bundles should be of different lengths, so that 
they may be placed with the tallest, which should be the 
wheat, at the centre of the sheaf and the shortest at the 
circumference. For convenience each handful should be 
tied together with a string just under the head. 
After all has been placed in position and the sheaf 
bound about half way down with a wisp of straw, the 
strings on the bundle should be cut, so that they may open 
out freely ; trim off the straw at the bottom evenly and 
dress out the top of the sheaf until the wheat stands out ifel' 
boldly from the centre, while the oats and the barley 
droop gracefully about. s/kfb 
A recent writer in that excellent English horticultural _ -nab 
journal, the Garden, says “ Church decoration, in con¬ 
nection with the principal festivals, is every year becoming 
more general, and the part taken by gardeners in the work 
more extended. I have lately had an opportunity of wit¬ 
nessing a rather tasteful example of church decoration at 
an annual harvest festival. With the exception of a few 
groups of Ferns and tropical plants, the materials used are 
common almost everywhere, and consisted mainly of the 
various kinds of wild fruits and berries, grapes, cereals, 
hops, evergreens, and flowers. Some of the wreathing 
and tracery was exquisitely done by ladies ; one of the 

FLORAL DECORA FLOATS. y j 
prettiest examples was formed by working a narrow back¬ 
ground with flat pieces of Arbor-vitse, on which were 
arranged the woolly capsules or seed-vessels of the com¬ 
mon Clematis, intermixed and blending tastefully with 
Acorns, Hips, Haws, Sloes, Portugal Laurel, and Ivy ber¬ 
ries, with just sufficient bright-colored flowers to lighten it 
up. I have rarely seen common plants so effectively used. 
There was also considerable ingenuity displayed in select¬ 
ing the materials for forming the letters of the various 
biblical extracts adorning the walls of the church. The 
letters of one of the most effective were formed with the 
scarlet berries of the Crataegus Pyracantha, on a white 
ground wreathed round with Ivy leaves, relieved at inter¬ 
vals with clusters of the almost black Cherry-like fruit of 
the common Laurel. In another instance the letters were 
cut out of cotton wool on a red ground ; others, again, 
were formed with rice and various kinds of grain. In 
decorating large buildings the interior arrangements of 
which are sometimes of a gloomy character, a large allow¬ 
ance should be made for the effect of light and shade, and 
the distance at which it is necessary, in many instances, to 
place the decorations above the eye. In wreathing arches, 
heavier materials may be used than would be desirable at 
a lower level. A large Dahlia flower shows but a small 

74 FLORAL DECORATIONS. 
amount of color when placeu at a distance above the line 
of sight—in fact, the most effective flowers I noticed for 
lofty decorations were Sunflowers and the feathery silver 
plumes of the Pampas Grass. Perhaps the font, tor ap¬ 
propriate and chaste arrangements, was the most effective 
of anything I saw. The base was covered with Ivy closely 
arranged, in which were inserted Snowberries, white Roses, 
and other white flowers, contrasting well with the dark 
foliage. Masses of Lycopodium denticulatum filled the 
niches between the supporting pillars, while a dense 
growth of Sedum carneum variegatum hung down grace¬ 
fully from the top, and over all was a circular trellis cov¬ 
ered with Clematis Flemmula and Stephanotis. In the 
angles, on bases of Ivy, were arranged groups of choice 
Ferns.” 
Another writer in the same journal says “ What we 
should chiefly guard against is over-doing the matter. In 
the rural parish of Middleton Tyas, in Yorkshire, I saw 
church decoration carried out in an exceedingly interesting 
manner, the materials used being leaves of the Spanish 
Chestnut, Oak, Beech, sprigs of Ivy and Birch, a few 
stalks of Oats, Perilla Nankinensis, and one or two wild 
Grasses, all judiciously worked up, and made into wreaths 
of the most harmonious and pleasing description. The 

FLORAL DECORATLONS. 7 , 
shape of each leaf was, as far as possible, preserved, while 
the stalks of Oak gave a drooping spray-like appearance 
to the composition. In the window spaces were placed a 
few green leaves and moss, on which was placed some 
fruit A handful of choice heads of Wheat, neatly bound 
with pink ribbon, served to'relieve the heavier portions of 
the building. The chancel arch was slightly ornamented 
with sprays of Ivy, placed so as not to detract from the 
due proportions of its fine old “early English'” style. 
Among fruits, the most effective was the Siberian Crab, 
small clusters of which were most effective, its color and 
small size making it invaluable .for purposes of decoration. 
In all these decorations, there was not a flower used larger 
than a Pompon Dahlia. Fern leaves, ornamented with 
Rose buds, and pinned here and there to the pillars, just 
high enough for the eye to catch their full beauty, were 
much admired. Sprays of Ivy, placed in its natural posi¬ 
tion, with two Or three larger leaves round the base, had 
an effective appearance. In the wreaths, every leaf was as 
perfect in its way as could be procured, and as much of 
the surface was exposed as possible. The scarlet-leaved 
Oak, and various Maples, together with others that could 
be named would be found useful for this kind of work. 
My object is to show what can be done with material to be 

7 6 FLORAL DECORATIONS. 
found in every green lane, good taste and ready aptitude 
only being wanted to work it up into designs at once pleas¬ 
ing and effective.” 
Christmas is a day to be observed with gladness and 
hearty good-will, and whatever decorations can give this 
expression are appropriate. In reference to that stern sen¬ 
timent which would banish all decorations from places of 
worship, Wordsworth says 
“ Go seek, when Christmas snows discomfort bring, 
The counter spirit found in some gay church. 
Green with fresh Holly, ev’ry part a perch, 
On which the linnet or the thrush might sing. 
Merry and loud, and safe from prying search, 
Strains offered only to the genial Spring. 
In England the Holly and the Laurel are very generally 
used, and nothing can be finer. In some parts of our coun¬ 
try these are to be found, and in such places, will not fail 
to be so employed. 
Several sorts of Lycopodium are serviceable for decora¬ 
tions ; some kinds are dwarf, only growing from four to 
eight inches in height, and another one, called running 
Pine, grows several yards in length. 
The Arbor-Vitse has come into very general use in this 
country for wreaths and festoons in Christmas trimmings. 

FLORAL DECORATLONS. 77 
at >d is very appropriate in all respects—it is emblematicle 
of enduring friendship. Some bright berries and light 
colored everlasting flowers will relieve the hue, which is a 
little too sombre. Bright flowers at this season of the year 
impart a cheeriness to the rooms which nothing else could 
compensate for ; and even if only a few can be had they 
will not fail to be appreciated. 
When mottoes and sentences or initial letters are 
used in decorating, it is very desirable to be able to maV e 
letters skilfully. The following directions will prove 
valuable. The best material out of which to form letters 
for wall decorations is straw-board, but If it should happen 
that this cannot conveniently be procured, then use the 
heaviest paper to be had, or take common newspapers and 
paste three or four thicknesses of them together, and when 
Letters must be made of dif¬ 
ferent sizes according to the 
positions and the space they 
are to occupy ; first, deter¬ 
mine the length of the letter, 
and divide: this length into 
six equal darts. The length 
of one of these parts is the 
distance from each other at which lines should be drawn 
dry they are ready for use. 

7 8 
FLORAL DECORA LIONS. 
across the paper in two directions, forming squares as in 
the engraving here presented. If the letters are six inches 
in height, four inches would be the right width for the let¬ 
ters, B, C, D, H, N, O, P, Q, R, S, T, U, Z; four inches 
and a half for A, G, K, V, X, Y, & ; the letter M should 
be five inches, W six inches, E, F, L, three and a half 
inches, J three inches, and I one inch wide. 
In this manner, letters of any size can be made by mere¬ 
ly dividing the length into six equal parts and taking the 
measure of tour of these parts for the width of the letters 
first named above, and varying the widths for the others 
as indicated. 
The letters can now be Cut out with a sharp knife or 
shears, and are ready to be covered, as may be desired. 
This can 
be done by 
tying with 
dark thread 
small bran¬ 
ches of ever¬ 
greens over 
the face : of 
the board, with a few Everlasting Flowers or bright berries 
to relieve the sombre color. Better letters, however, can 

FLORAL DECORATIONS. 
79 
be made with dry moss and Everlasting Flowers, as shown 
here. Tie the moss over the face of the letter as evenly as 
possible, then cut the stems of jtlie flowers short, leaving 
only about half an inch. Dip the stem in a little paste, 
and insert it in the moss, and when dry it will remain 
secure. 
In the same way, 
crosses, wreaths and var¬ 
ious emblems can be 
made and ornamented. 
Easter is another sea¬ 
son for the use of flow¬ 
ers freely in the church, and affording abundant oppor¬ 
tunity for the exercise of skill in displaying them emble¬ 
matically . Whatever may express love, compassion,purity, 
joy, hope, faith, truth, goodness of any of the better quali¬ 
ties of the soul may fitly be used. 
Decoration Day, the day set apart as a national holi¬ 
day for revering the memory of the patriot dead, is another 
occasion for the diseriminative use of flowers ; bouquets, 
wreaths, crosses, anchors, crowns, harps, initial letters, 
and other devices admit of the display of skill in the selec¬ 
tion of flowers and tneir arrangement and combination for 

So FLORAL DECORATLONS. 
proper expression ; in this work the heart may utter its 
deepest sympathies of which the lips would refuse to speak. 
Birthday Celebrations admit of the use of flowers 
from the simplest manner to the greatest profusion and of 
every color, hue and form. 
It is unnecessary to go into detail here to describe suit¬ 
able devices for such an occasion, and one only will be 
mentioned that is appropriately used, which is the initial 
letters of the name or a monogram of the initial letters of 
the person, with or without the figures of the year of birth. 
To make this, a background of green can be made by 
taking card board of the proper size, and covering it with 
green moss, which may be fastened with a little paste. 
French moss dyed green is best when it can be had. 
In the absence of moss it can be covered with small 
sprays of Arbor Vitae, which can be fastened on in the 
same manner with paste. When this ground work is com¬ 
pleted, the initial letters can be made of Immortelles and 
Everlasting flowers, the stems of which being touched 
with a little paste will be held secure when placed in the 
moss. Much skill and taste can be shown in designing 
the letters or, the monogram and performing the work. 
Another fine effect is produced by having the back-ground 
of white cotton wool and the letters in green or the reverse, 

FLORAL DECORATIONS. 8t 
the back-ground green and the letters of white cotton. On 
this occasion the particularly expressive designs in bouquets, 
baskets of flowers, or other devices will be carefully studied 
and formed. 
Weddings are occasions for the use of flowers without 
stmt when directed by good taste—to attempt any instruc¬ 
tions for decorations would be quite impossible here—of 
course they may consist of festooning of various sorts and 
floral devices unlimited. The bridal bouquet should be 
constructed of flowers which are as appropriate in their 
sentiment as in form and color ; of these we may mention 
only a few, such as white Camellias, white Rose buds, pink 
Rose buds, Moss Rose buds, Orange blossoms, Lemon 
blossoms, Mignonette, Heliotrope, Tuberose, Lily-of-the- 
Valley, Rose Geranium leaves, Deutzia, Fabiana, Eucharis 
amazonica, Jasmine, Myrtle, Ivy-leaved Geranium, Ivy 
leaves, &c. 
Funeral Ceremonies are almost universally celebrat¬ 
ed with appropriate floral decorations ; at such a time the 
heart may find consolation by silently breathing its emo¬ 
tions in sweet blossoms. 

FLORAL DECORATIONS. 
82 
“ Bring flowers, pale flowers, on the bier to shed— 
A crown for the brow of the early dead ; 
For this, through its leaves hath the white Rose burst; 
For this, in the woods was the Violet nursed. 
Though they smile in vain for what once was ours, 
They are love’s last gift—bring ye flowers, pale flowers !” 
Many a flower is sacred—some to one, some to another 
in association with the last sad rites of loved ones , to some 
person it is a Pansy or a Violet, to another a white Rose or 
perhaps a white Camellia ; this one cherishes with an affec¬ 
tion almost amounting to devotion, a white Lily or a Calla, 
and that one, the Lily’ of the Valley, the Forget-me-not, or 
the Mignonette. 
White flowers of all kinds are appropriate, and climbing 
or trailing vines and a great variety of foliage, either green 
or green and white variegated, or green and some dark 
color as we see in some Begonias and Dracenas, and Cis- 
sus discolor. 
What has been said under the head of Decoration Day 
of suitable devices applies here, and all our remarks are 
intended merely as suggestive. 
Times, seasons, and all circumstances will be carefully 
considered in every appropriate effort ot this kind. 
The Church at every service when it is possible should 

FLORAL DECORATIONS. 8j 
be supplied with flowers. A pleasant writer says “ In 
adorning the Communion Table or the Font with flowers 
we should select those that are bright and gorgeous, as 
such colors were used by the artists of the middle ages, 
and from time immemorial there has been a symbolism, 
especially in religious ceremonies and decorations. Red is 
the symbol of Divine love ; white, of Divine wisdom ; yel¬ 
low is a symbol of the revelation of the love and wisdom 
of God ; blue, of Divine eternity and of human immortality. 
It is but little labor for several ladies m each congrega¬ 
tion to furnish the flowers. 
“ If there is any kind of adornment which more than 
another seems fitted to God’s house, it is that thoughtful 
use of the ‘ Green things of the Earth.’ ” 
Flowers are the painted sculpturings of nature—the 
shapes and colors of beauty, which the Creator has lavished 
upon the world—and surely they can never be employed 
for a better purpose. In the church, flowers suggest 
thoughts that are in unison with the occasion, and the 
time and care thus bestowed on the adornment of the 
church are not without their reward. 
Pious thoughts arise while skilful fingers are busy with 
the work which, as it is done for the sake of God’s 
honor, must, from its very nature, be linked with good 

84 FLORAL DECORATIONS. 
to all concerned in it. ‘ Whoso offereth me praise, glori- 
fieth me.’ ” 
“ Bring flowers to the shrine where we kneel in prayer, 
They are nature’s offering, their place is there 
They speak of hope, to the fainting heart, 
With a voice of comfort they come and part; 
They sleep in dust through the wintry hours, 
They break forth in glory—bring flowers, bright flowers.” 
CEMETERY DECORATIONS. 
It has now become common to decorate the graves 
of friends with wreaths, crosses, anchors, crowns and 
other emblematic objects made of Everlasting flowers 
and Immortelles. This is a beautiful practice and its 
effects refining and elevating. These objects in fine 
weather will retain a good appearance for a long time 
— to protect them during the inclement seasons resort is 
sometimes had to a glass case which allows them to be 
seen and yet shelters them from the storms. White and 
naturally colored flowers of Everlastings and Immor¬ 
telles, and artificially colored flowers are used for this 
purpose. 
bouquets of fresh cut flowers are also placed upon 

FLORAL DECORATIONS. 85 
graves, but this is only for the passing hour as they soon 
fade and wither. 
To briefly trace this custom along back to remote periods 
we can do it m no way better than‘to quote from Walton 
in his Lives of the Anglers, when, referring to the customs 
as observed at a funeral he attended in 1631, he says :— 
“To the place of his burial some mournful friends repair¬ 
ed, and, as Alexander did to the grave of the famous 
Achilles, so they strewed his with an abundance of curious 
and costly flowers.” But it was a natural transition from 
the strewing of flowers to the sowing of seeds or trans¬ 
planting plants and so has sprung up the custom of culti¬ 
vating flowers upon graves, which is by far the most beau¬ 
tiful style of decorating It appears, from an old inscrip¬ 
tion at Ravenna, and another at Milan, that the Greeks 
and Romans often annexed, as a codicil to their wills, that 
Roses should annually be strewn and planted on their 
graves. The same custom found its way into England at 
an early date. An English writer says that, “ in 1653 a 
citizen of London named Edward Rose left the sum of £20 
to be laid out in the purchase of an acre of land for the 
benefit of the poor of the village of Barnes, in the same 
county, as long as they should keep Rose trees growing 
upon his grave.” 

86 FLORAL DECORATLONS. 
It is a curious fact to note, in this connection that, in the 
German part of Switzerland the church-yards are called 
“ Rose Gardens.” 
Mr. Fortune, the celebrated horticultural traveller, 
sa y S ; —“ The flowers which the Chinese plant on or 
among the tombs are simple and beautiful in their kind. 
'No expensive Camellias, Moutans, or other fine ornaments 
of the garden, are chosen for this purpose. Sometimes the 
conical mound of earth—when the grave is of this kind— 
is crowned with a large plant of fine, tall, waving grass. 
At Ningpo, wild Roses are planted, which soon spread 
themselves over the grave, and, when their flowers expand 
in spring, cover it with a sheet of pure white. At Shanghai 
a pretty bulbous plant, a species of Lycoris, covers the 
graves in autumn with masses of brilliant purple When I 
first discovered the Anemone Japonica, it was in full flower 
amongst the graves of the natives, which are round the 
ramparts of Shanghai; it blooms in November, when other 
flowers have gone by, and is a most appropriate ornament 
to the last resting place of the dead.” 
To name some of the best and most valuable flowers for 
graves we would first notice the Snowdrops,which are quite 
hardy everywhere, and are the first flowers of spring, peep¬ 
ing even through the snow and displaying their pure white 

FLORAL DECORATIONS. 87 
little bells. Next to the Snowdlop is the Crocus in time of 
flowering, but lasting a longer time in bloom. These are 
also, by their hardiness, adapted to every climate — the 
varieties of them including white, blue, striped and yellow, 
and the flowers last through several weeks of the early 
spring when nothing else is in bloom. 
The Hyacinth comes next in order of time and in beauty 
and fragrance it is one of the most desirable of flowers. 
The varieties of it are very numerous and embrace a great 
number of colors. The culture of the Hyacinth is very 
simple, and after they are planted in the fall they may re¬ 
main year after year and will annually produce their 
flowers iu spring, though after the first year the spikes of 
flowers are smaller. 
The Lily-of-the-Valley is a hardy, low-growing peren¬ 
nial which is equisitely delicate, graceful and fragrant, 
and admirably adapted to the purpose under consideration. 
It blooms early in spring or about with the Hyacinths. 
All of the lilies are suitable for grave decorating, but 
the following sorts are most desirable :—Lilium candidum 
or the common white Lily, which produces freely its clear, 
waxen-white, sweet-scented flowers; Lilium Japonicum 
longiflorum with its long, trumpet-shaped, white flowers ; 
Lilium speciosum album with large, showy, pure white 

88 FLORAL DECORATIONS. 
flowers; Lilium lancifolium album, white flowers with 
green veins ; Lilium lancifolium rubrum, white with car¬ 
mine spots all over the upper surface of the sepals ; Lilium 
lancifolium punctatum, differing but little from the last 
namea but somewhat larger; Lilium auratum, the mag¬ 
nificent gold-banded Japan Lily—the largest of all Lilies 
This selection of Lilies will produce a succession of flowers 
until August, and then comes the Day-Lily or Funkia, 
(Hemerocailis Japonica,) just in time to keep up continued 
bloom with the Lilies. The flowers of the Day-Lily are 
somewhat trumpet-shaped, pure white and deliciously 
fragrant. 
The Dicentra Spectabilis cannot be spared from this list, 
indeed, its beauty, grace and hardiness make it particularly 
desirable. Violets and Pansies scarcely, require a word to 
be said for them as they are so well-known—in a word 
they are indispensable. 
The double white, and the pink and salmon colored 
varieties of the Chinese Pseonies are quite desirable and 
some of them are almost as fragrant as a Rose— all of them 
are hardy. 
The perennial Phlox is a hardy plant of a great number 
of varieties of many shades and markings ; it blooms freely 
and the different varieties succeed each other from mid- 
JtbtK 
JltlMi 
ijneJ 
*Asfi 
M 
I.* 
.ff* 
if"' 
Arpl* 
sJftl* 

summer until September. Although this plant will suc¬ 
ceed almost everywhere, yet it does best in a humid soil 
and where it is partially shaded from the sun. 
The Daisy is an admirable little plant very much used 
for grave decorating, and every way suited for it—there 
are double red, white and pink varieties. 
The Astilbe Japonica or Hoteia Japonica is a very pretty 
hardy herbaceous perennial, producing large branching 
panicls of small, pure white flowers in the middle of 
spring. 
The Anemone Japonica alba is an invaluable plant for 
this purpose—it produces in great profusion its large while 
flowers all through the autumn, commencing the latter 
part of August and lasting as long as the weather holds 
mild, even into December. It is in bloom when nearly 
all other plants have ceased to flower, and prolongs and 
finishes the season commenced by the Snowdrop, and con¬ 
tinued by the Lilies and the Day-Lily. 
As a handsome trailing plant the Vinca or Periwinkle 
must be noticed, as in its pax-ticular style it has no compeer. 
There are several varieties of it—some with white and yel¬ 
low margined leaves. It is a hardy evergreen plant, al- 
trailing over the ground. 

go FLORAL DECORATIONS. 
This list might be prolonged, especially for particular 
localities, but those mentioned are most serviceable gene¬ 
rally, and all of them are hardy, and when once planted 
may remain for years. To enumerate all the annual and 
tender plants that would be suitable for the embellishment 
of graves and cemetery lots, would be a formidable task 
and in reference to it, it is only necessary to say that, what 
is desired is to make the spot look bright and cheerful, and 
the love that prompts us to this sacred care will usually 
enable us to do what is most befitting. 
The hardy plants that can remain year after year are 
the ones which will be mainly depended upon and with a 
few flowering shrubs will, in most cases, be all that is 
planted. 
Of flowering shrubs, the most important for this purpose 
is the Rose. In severe climates it is very desirable to obtain 
a good, hardy, white Rose and to meet this requirement we 
•Hull mention two that will always prove satisfactory in 
every respect; these are Madam Plantier and Madam 
Hardy. They are large, pure white, double fragrant and 
will stand in quite cold localities. tgtfgi 
In climates less severe, and with more attention, any ot 
the Hybrid Perpetuals will be valuable, and, as there are 
so many good varieties ot these and so many shades of 

FLORAL DECORATLONS. 
9 J 
colors, it is unnecessary to specify varieties, leaving it to 
individual taste. 
In still milder regions the Bourbons and Noisettes,where* 
they flourish, will be preferred on account of their habit of 
continuous blooming, and their more delicate structure and 
finer fragrance. In the warm regions the China and Tea 
Roses, with their delicate tints and exquisite perfume, will 
of course be mainly employed—these with some selections 
from the Bourbons and Noisettes will supply all that can be 
desired. 
Deutzia gracilis is a hardy, low-growing shrub, produc¬ 
ing a profusion of pure white delicate flowers in spring, 
and will always occupy a principal place in the list we 
are naming. Deutzia crenata flore pleno, growing four or 
five feet high, is one of the most beautiful of flowering 
shrubs. The flowers are double, pure white, except that 
the back of each petal is slightly and delicately tinged 
with pink. 
Deutzia crenata candidissima resembles the preceding, 
except that it is entirely white. 
Without giving further descriptions the following may 
be mentioned : — Hydrangea paniculata grandiflora, Tree 
Pgeony, Weigelia of different varieties, Purple-leaved Ber¬ 
berry, Spirea, of different varieties, Mahonia aquifolia, dwarf- 

9 2 FLORAL BE CORA FLOATS. 
flowering Almond. Where it will do well the English 
Ivy is a very desirable and beautiful plant, and the same 
may be said of the Holly and the Rhododendron. 
This list is far from being a complete one, nor is it 
intended to refer to those larger shrubs and trees which 
are properly employed in cemetery embellishment, but 
it will serve to indicate, to a great extent, the kinds of 
plants that are suitable and desirable for decoration in 
close proximity to the graves. 
PREPARING SKELETON LEAVES. 
The following method of preparing skeleton leaves is 
simple, expeditious and reliable: —First dissolve four ounces 
of common washing-soda in a quart of boiling water, then 
add two ounces of slacked quick-lime, and boil for about 
fifteen minutes. Allow this solution to cool ; afterwards 
pour off all the liquor into a clean saucepan. When the 
solution is at boiling point, place the leaves carefully in 
the pan, and boil the whole together for an hour. Boil¬ 
ing water ought to be added occasionally, but sufficient 
only to replace that lost by evaporation. The epidermis 
and parenchyma of some leaves will more readily separate 
set® 
.jjjlB 
M 
, n 
2jin 
a mtii 
.ish 
s »l\ 
:oeh 
'im 
aip 
aim 

FLORAL DECORATIONS. 
93 
than others. A good test is to try the leaves after they 
have been gently boiling for about an hour, and if the 
cellular matter does not easily rub off betwixt the finger 
and thumb beneath cold water, boil them again for a short 
time. When the fleshy matter is found to be sufficiently 
softened, rub them separately but very gently beneath cold 
water, until the perfect skeleton is exposed. The skeletons 
at first are of a dirty white color ; to make them of a pure 
white, and, therefore, more beautiful, all that is necessary 
is to bleach them in a weak solution of chloride of lime. 
The best solution is a large teaspoonful of chloride of lime 
to a quart of water ; if a few drops of vinegar are added to 
the bleaching solution, it is all the better, for then the free 
chlorine is liberated. Do not allow them to remain too 
long in the bleaching liquor, or they will become too brit¬ 
tle, and cannot afterwards be handled without injury. 
About fifteen minutes is sufficient to make them white and 
clean-looking. Dry the specimens in white blotting paper, 
beneath a gentle pressure, after they are bleached. 
Simple leaves are the best for young beginners to experi¬ 
ment upon ; the Vine, Poplar, Beech, and Ivy leaves make 
excellent skeletons. Care must be exercised in the selec¬ 
tion of leaves, as well as the period of the year and the 
state of the atmosphere when the specimens are collected, 

FLORAL DECORATIONS. 
otherwise failure will be the result. The best months to- 
gather the specimens are July and August. Never collect 
specimens in damp weather ; and none but perfectly ma¬ 
tured leaves ought to be selected. 
DRYING FLOWERS, 
WITH NATURAL COLORS AND FORMS PRESERVED. 
Many flowers can be dried so that their natural colors- 
and forms can be perfectly preserved, and they can be kept 
in perfection a long time. This is done by drying them in 
sand. White flowers are not very well suited to this pur¬ 
pose, nor those of flimsy texture. Neither are very suc- 
culant plants. Single flowers will be found much better 
than double ones. 
It is essential that the sand used should be pure —that is 
not mixed with vegetable matter, nor any coloring sub¬ 
stances. Clean sea sand is nearest pure, but as it contains 
some salt it must be washed to free it from that. But any 
fine sand may be used by first washing it in several waters 
so as to separate from it any organic matter. The sand 
must be thoroughly dry, and this condition can only be 
attained by subjecting it to considerable heat such as may 

FLORAL DECORATION'S. 9S 
be done in an oven. Having heated it to a high heat and 
turned it several times until all moisture has been expelled 
from it, it is ready for use. 
This is the only preparation absolutely necessary, except 
that, as the leaves of some plants are more or less gluti¬ 
nous, the sand will adhere to them with much tenacity and 
spoil the appearance of the specimens. To prevent this 
the particles of the sand are coated with stearine in the fol¬ 
lowing manner After the sand has been dried in the 
manner already described, it can be weighed, and to every 
twelve or thirteen pounds of baked sand take one ounce of 
stearine. The stearine shoidd be scraped into fine shavings, 
and having placed a quantity of the sand in a large flat 
pan over a good fire, heat it to such a degree that a small 
piece of stearine will immediately melt on it; now scatter 
the stearine over the sand — the proper quantity for the 
sand in the pan in the proportion named above. While 
adding the stearine stir the sand constantly and keep it 
moving until it has been thoroughly commingled and every 
particle has been coated. Having prepared all the sand in 
this way it is fitted for use. 
A good sized box to hold the sand will be about six 
inches deep and eight or ten inches wide, and twelve or 
fifteen inches long. These proportions can be varied a few 

g 6 FLORAL DECORATLONS. 
inches either way, to suit the convenience of the operator. 
In the bottom of the box a half dozen half-inch holes- 
should be bored, and over these, inside, some bits of strong 
paper pasted. 
The flowers to be dried can now be selected. They 
should be free from dew or moisture. Through a fine 
sieve sift a layer of sand a qtiarter of an inch deep into the 
box ; now lay carefully as many flowers and leaves on the 
sand as you can ; the space between the larger flowers 
may be filled up by smaller ones ; on this layer of flowers 
carefully sift another layer of sand ; the sand should not 
be pressed down with the hand, as this would spoil the 
natural shape of the flowers, but knock gently with your 
fingers at the side of the box until every little space be¬ 
tween and under the flowers is well filled up ; then put m 
another layer of flowers and proceed as before until tne 
box is full. Put on the lid of the box, and tie it on with 
a strong cord, or, what is better yet, fasten it with a few 
small screws, and then put the box in a warm place,under 
or near the stove or on a shelf by the stove where it will 
be constantly warm. 
In three or five days, according to the warmth of the 
place, the flowers will be perfectly dry. When only ex¬ 
posed to the sun it requires much more time. To remove 

FLORAL DECORATION'S. 
97 
the flowers cut through the bits of paper at the bottom and 
let the sand run out. The flowers at first are so brittle that 
they cannot be taken out without breaking them, but if the 
open box is placed in a cool moist cellar for a few hours 
the contents may be removed with safety. 
By this simple process flowers, ferns, etc., are preserved 
in their proper shape, as well as their natural colors, and 
are very beautiful for winter bouquets and baskets, and will 
look well for a long time if protected from dust and the 
rays of the sun. 
AUTUMN LEAVES. 
The bright-hued leaves of autumn can be used in orna¬ 
menting in a great variety of ways, and it is desirable to 
be able to preserve them so that they will be most lasting 
and serviceable. 
Small and medium sized leaves are the best, and they 
should be of as great variety of form and color as possible- 
As soon as gathered, the leaves should be pressed between 
sheets of paper. Old newspapers will answer, or if more 
convenient, old books may be used. Place the leaf on a 
page so as to cover it, and then turn over five or six leaves 

FLORAL DECORATLONS. 
g8 
and place another layer, and so on until they are disposed 
of. After a day or two the leaves should be shifted into 
another book, where the dry leaves will again absorb 
more moisture. After a few days in this way, the books 
all the time being subjected to pressure, the. leaves will be 
dry. Now procure from the druggists some white wax 
and place it in a saucer on the stove to melt. When the 
wax is melted add a few drops of turpentine which softens 
the wax and makes the waxed leaf more pliable and 
natural. Try a leaf by dipping it into the wax, face • 
downward, then draw it slowly over the edge of the saucer 
once or twice, to remove all superfluous wax, and hold it 
in a horizontal position with the right side of the leaf up, 
and it will dry in a minute or two. If the wax is too 
hot it will wither the leaf, and if too cool the wax will 
show in lumps, if just right it will be perfectly even, and 
show the colors of the leaf as bright as when first gathered. 
Sometimes, when there are uneven spots of wax on the 
leaf they can be removed by slightly scraping them with 
the thumb-nail. 
The wax should not be removed from the stove during 
the operation, but when it is too hot move it back and for¬ 
ward again when it cools. 
By the method here described leaves will retain their 

FLORAL DECORATIONS. gg 
natural shapes and colors for years, and can be employed 
for decorating in a great variety of ways. 
DRYING SEA MOSSES. 
Sea mosses can be dried by placing them in a soup plate, 
or any shallow dish filled with fresh water, and a little bit 
of alum added to it. Float the moss by placing pieces of 
white paper under it, and then take a camel’s hair brush 
and arrange the fibrous leaves in a natural manner upon 
the paper or card board. If the moss is very fine, the 
point of a needle will be useful in preparing it. 
When the specimens are placed as desired, raise the 
paper carefully, so that the moss will not be disturbed, 
and let it rest in a slanting position, so that the water 
can run off. 
When still damp, place an bit of old soft linen over 
it, and press m blotting paper. Let it remain under a 
heavy pressure until dry. 

■Ml 
IOO 
With pink and green sea weeds one can re¬ 
present lovely moss rosebuds, and also many other 
flowers if so disposed, but the forms they naturally assume 
on the paper, when floated, are extremely graceful, and it 
is almost or quite impossible to imagine anything more 
delicate or exquisitely beautiful. 

} belia, 
bele, White Poplar, 
Abronia, 
Abutilon, 
Acacia, yellow, 
Acacia, rose, 
Acacia, Locust Tree, 
Acacia, green leaves of, Lo 
cust Tree, 
Acanthus, . . 
Achania Malvaviscus, 
Achillea millefolium, Yar¬ 
row, .... 
Achimines, 
Gratitude. 
Time. 
Delicacy. Refinement. 
Grace and Dignity. 
Concealed love. 
Friendship. 
Elegance. 
-My heart is buried. Affection 
beyond the grave. 
Artifice. 
Reserve. 
Cure for the heart-ache. 
Such worth is rare. 

102 
SENTIMENTS OF FLOWERS. 
Aconitum Napellus, Monks¬ 
hood, 
Adam’s Needle, 
Adonis, 
Adlumia, 
Ethiopian Lily 
African Marigold, . 
Agapanthus, African 
. An enemy in disguise. 
. Natural charms. 
. Sad memories. 
. Good nature. 
. Magnificent beauty. 
. Cruelty. 
Li/yFemale loveliness. 
Agave Americana, Century 
Plant, 
Ageratum, 
Agrimony, 
Agrostemma, . 
Allamanda, 
Almond, common, 
Almond, flowering, 
Aloe, 
Alonsoa, . 
Altemanthera, . 
Althea frutex, . 
Althea officinalis, Marsh 
Mallow, 
Alyssum maritima. Sweet 
Alyssum- 
Grief. 
Undying affection. 
Gratitude. 
Gentility. 
Good disposition. 
Stupidity. Indiscretion. 
Hope. 
Religious superstition. 
Gratitude. 
Favoritism. 
Consumed by love. 
Beneficence. To cure. 
Worth beyond beauty. 

SENTIMENTS OF FLOWERS. 
ioj 
Amaranth, globe, . . Immortality. Unfading love. 
Amaranthus caudatus, Love- 
lies-bleeding, 
Amaryllis, 
Ambrosia, 
American Cowslip, 
American Laurel, 
. Hopeless, not heartless. 
. Coquetry. Pride. 
. Love returned. 
. You are my divinity. 
. Falsehood. Treachery. 
Amorpha, False Indigo, . Imperfection. 
Ampelopsis quinquefolia, 
Virginia Creeper or Ameri-1 cling to you both in sun- 
can Ivy, . . . shine and shade. 
Anagallis, Pimpernel, Poor 
Man's Weatherglass, . Change. Fickleness. 
Anchusia, Bugloss, . . Falsehood. 
Andromeda, . . . Self-sacrifice. 
Anemone coronaria, Garden 
Anemone, . . . Forsaken. 
Anemone nemorosa, Wood 
Anemone, . . . Anticipation. 
Anemone pulsatilla, Pasque You are without preten- 
Flower, sion. 
Angelica, . . . Inspiration. Magic. 
Anthemis nobilis, GarderiFoxtiX.xx&e. Cheerfulness in 
Chamomile, . . adversity. 

104 SENTIMENTS 
OF FLO WEES. 
& 
Antirrhinum, Snapdragon, 
Deception. I have been flat¬ 
d 
tered with false hopes. 
A 
Apocynum, Dogs bane, 
Deceit. Falsehood. 
A pit, 
Apple blossom, 
Preference. 
Apple (fruit,) 
Temptation. 
jflt19 
Apricot blossom, 
Doubt. 
Aquilegia, red, Columbine, 
Hopes and fears. 
jjflfcL 
Aquilegia, purple, . 
I cannot give thee up. 
Arbor Vitae, 
Thy friend until death. 
Arbutus, trailing, 
Budding beauty. 
gift 
Archangelica, Angelica, . 
Inspiration. Magic. 
Arethusa, 
I could weep for thee. 
b 
Argemone, 
Determination. By hook or 
by crook. 
Arissema triphyllum, Arum, 
& • 
Indian Turnip, 
Ardor. Zeal. 
Aristolochia, Birtkwort, . 
Friendship. 
Armeria vulgaris, Thrift . 
Sympathy. 
Artemisa abrotanum, South 
akr’j 
ernwood. 
Jesting. 
Artemisia Vulgaris, Mugwort, 
Wormwood. 
Good luck. Happiness. 
Artillery Plant, 
Your shafts are pointless. 
JSL. 
Arum.Ardor. Zeal. 


job SENTIMENTS OF EL0 WEES. 
Barberry, 
. Sharpness of temper. 
Bartonia aurea, 
. False pretensions. 1 
gold that glistens. 
Basil, sweet, . 
. Good wishes. 
Bay, 
. Glory. 
Bay wreath, 
. Reward of merit. 
Beech, 
. Prosperity. 
Bee Orchis, 
. Industry. 
Begonia, . 
. Deformity. 
Belladona, 
, Falsehood. 
Bellflower, white, 
. Gratitude. 
Bellflower, blue, 
. Constancy. 
Beilis perennis, Daisy, . Innocence. 
Betonica, Betony, 
. Surprise. 
Bignonia radicans, Trumpet 
Flower , 
. Separation. 
Bilberry, 
. Treachery. 
Bindweed, small, 
, Humility. 
Birch, 
. Meekness. 
Birthwort, 
. Friendship. 
Bittersweet, 
. Truth. 
Black Hellebore, 
. Relieve my anxiety. 
Bladder Nut, 
. Social qualities. 
Bladder Senna, 
. Conceit. 

SENTIMENTS OF FLO WEES. 
Blanket Flower, 
Bluebell, 
Borage, 
Boston Smilax, 
Botrychium, Moonwort, 
Boussingaultia,,Madeira 
Bouvardia, 
Box, 
Brachycome, . 
Bramble, 
Branch of Thoms, 
Bridal Rose, 
Broken Straw, 
Broom, 
Broom com, 
Browallia, 
Brunfelsia, 
Bryony, 
Buck Bean, 
Bud of White Rose . 
Bugloss, 
Burdock, 
Buttercup, 
Butterfly Weed, 
. Good sense. 
• Constancy. 
• Bluntness. 
. Loveliness. 
. Forgetfulness. 
Vine, Charms. 
. I am no summer friend. 
. Constancy. 
. Artfulness. 
. Envy. 
. Severity. Rigor. 
. Happy love. 
. Dissension. Rupture. 
. Humility. Neatness. 
. Industry. 
. Could you bear poverty ? 
. Beware of false friends. 
. Be my support. 
. Calm Repose. 
. A heart ignorant of love. 
. Falsehood. 
. Importunity. 
. Riches. 
» Cure forthe heart-ache. 

SENTIMENTS OF FLOWERS. 
108 
M acalia, Tassel Flower , 
Wactus 
Calla Lily, .Ethiopian 
Calampelis scabra, . 
Calandrinia, 
Calceolaria, 
Adulation. 
Warmth. 
Magnificent beauty. 
Quiet enjoyment. 
Fidelity. 
I offer you pecuniary assis¬ 
tance. 
Cape 
Card 
Card 
bui 
Calendula, Garden Mari - 
Calliopsis, 
Callirhoe, 
Calycanthus, . 
Camellia Japonica, red, 
Camellia Japonica, white 
Campanula, blue, 
Campanula, white, 
Grief. Chagrin. 
Vanity. 
Benevolence. 
Benevolence. 
Admiration. 
Perfected loveliness. 
Constancy. 
Gratitude. 
Campanula speculum, Venus' 
Looking-glass, 
Campion, rose, 
Canna, Indian Shot, 
Candytuft, 
Canterbury Bells, 
Flattery. 
Only deserve my love. 
Revenge. Retaliation, 
Indifference. 
(See Campanula.) 
Cam! 
Cams 
Ca® 
Cam: 
Carpi 
Cassii 
Caste 
Catcl 
Cattle 
Cedar 
Celan 
m 
Celts 
Cdos 
Ceuta 
h 
Ceuta 
Centr 
Centr 

SENTIMENTS OF FLO WEES. 
Cape Jasmine, . . My heart is joyful. 
Cardinal Flower, . . Distinction. 
Cardiospermum Halicaca- 
bum, Love-in-a-puff, i?a/-Lovers quarrel 
TO(? 
Kiss and 
loon Vine, 
Carnation, white, 
Carnation, red, 
Carnation, striped, 
Carnation, yellow, 
Carpinus, 
Cassia, 
Castor-oil Plant, 
Catchfly, 
Cattleya pinelli, 
Cedar, 
Celandine, small, Flcaria 
ranunculoides, . . Future joy. 
Celastrus, Staff Tree, . Fortitude. 
Celosia, Cockscomb, . You are a fop. 
Centaurea cyanus, Bachelor'sCelih&cy. Single 
Button, . . . ness. 
Centauridium, . . Blissful ignorance. 
Centradenia, . . Abundance. 
Centranthus, . . . Personal charms. 
make up. 
Innocence. 
Alas ! for my poor heart. 
Refusal. 
Disdain. 
Ornament. 
Amiability. 
Detestation. 
I am a willing prisoner. 
Mature charms. 
Endurance. Fidelity. 
blessed- 

II o 
SENTIMENTS OF FLOWERS. 
Cerastium, Mouse-ear Chick- 
weed, 
Cercis, Judas Tree, 
Cereus, night-blooming, 
Cestrum, 
Chamapeuce, 
Chamomile, 
Chaste Tree, Vitex, 
Chelone, 
Chenopodi um, Pig-weed, 
Goosefoot, . . . Goodness. 
Cherry blossoms, 
Cherry, Jerusalem, . 
Checkered Lily, 
Chestnut, 
Chicory, 
Chickweed, 
Chickweed, mouse-ear, 
Chinese Pink, 
Simplicity. 
Unbelief. Betrayal. 
Transient beauty. 
Suspicion. 
Handsome but dangerous. 
Fortitude. Cheerfulness in 
adversity. 
Coldness. Indifference. 
Passion. 
Chili Jessamine, 
Chionanthus, White Fringe 
Tree, . . . Candor. 
Native charms. 
Deception. 
Persecution. 
Do me justice. 
Frugality. 
Let us meet again. 
Simplicity. 
Perseverance. Repulsed but 
not in despair. 
A snare. 

SENTIMENTS OF EL O WEES. m 
Chorozema varium, . You have many lovers. 
Christmas Rose, . . Relieve my anxiety. 
Chrysanthemum, rose or red,Love. 
Chrysanthemum, white, . Truth.' 
Chrysanthemum, yellow . Slighted love. 
Cineraria . . . Always delightful. 
Cinquefoil, 
Circea, Enchanter' 
shade, 
Cistus or Rock Rose, 
Clarkia, 
Clematis, 
Cleome, 
Clerodendron, 
Clianthus, 
Clotbur, 
Clover, four-leaved, 
Clover, red 
Clover, white, 
Coboea, 
Cockscomb, 
. Maternal affection. 
Night -1 shall beware of your en. 
. chantments. 
. Popular favor. 
. The variety of your conversa¬ 
tion delights me. 
. Mental excellence. 
. Good but odd. 
. Beware. 
. Worldliness. Selfishness. 
. Rudeness. Pertinacity. 
. Be mine. 
» Industry. 
. Think of me. 
. Gossip. 
. You are a fop. 
Colchicum, Meadow Saffron ,My best days are past. 
Collinsia, . . . Domestic virtues. 

112 
SENTIMENTS 
Colt’s Foot, 
Columbine, purple, 
Columbine, red, 
Colutea, Bladder Senna, . 
Convolvulus major, blue, 
Convolvulus major, pink, 
Convolvulus minor, 
Corchorus, . . 
Coreopsis, 
Coriander. 
Com, .... 
Corn, broken, 
Com Cockle, 
Corn Flag, Gtadiolus, 
Comus, Cornel, Dogwood, 
Coronilla, 
Cosmelia rubra 
Cotoneaster, 
Cowslip or Primrose, 
Crab blossom, 
Cranberry, 
Crape Myrtle, 
Crepis, .... 
OF FLOWERS . 
Justice shall be done you. 
I cannot give thee up. 
Hopes and fears. 
Conceit. 
Bonds. 
Worth and affection. 
Repose. Night. 
Impatience of absence. 
Always cheerful. 
Hidden worth. 
Riches. 
Quarrel. 
Gentility. 
Ready armed. 
False pretensions. 
Success crown your wishes. 
The charm of a blush. 
Sincerity. 
Unconscious beauty. Win. 
ning grace. 
Ill nature. 
Cure for the heart-ache. 
Eloquence. 
Pretensions. 

SENTIMENTS OF FLOWERS. 
Cress, 
Crocus, garden, 
Crocus sativa, Saffron, 
Crowfoot, 
Crown Imperial, 
Cuphea, 
Currants, 
Cuscuta, Dodder, 
Cyclamen, 
Cydonia Japonica, 
Quince, 
Cypress, 
Cynoglossum, 
Cypress and Marigold, 
Cypripedium, 
Cytissus, 
affodil, 
ahlia, 
Daisy, red, 
Daisy, white, . 
Daisy, wild, 
Daisy, oxeye, . 
Dandelion, 
Stability. 
Cheerfulness. 
Beware of excess. 
Ingratitude. 
Majesty. Power. 
Odditv. 
You please me. 
Meanness. 
Diffidence. 
Fairies’ fire. Delusion. 
Death. Mourning. 
Fidelity. 
Despair. 
Capricious beauty. 
Modest beauty. 
Regard. 
Elegance and dignity. 
Unconscious beauty. 
Innocence. 
I will think of it. 
Dsiappointment. 
Smiling on all. Coquetry. 
jfapan 

114 SEJM i J-Mj 
Daphne Mezereum, 
Darnel, 
Datura Stramonium, 
SENTIMENTS OF FLOWERS. 
Glory. Immortality. 
Vice. 
Thorn 
Apple, 
Day Lily, blue, 
Day Lily, white, 
Dead leaves, 
Deadly Nightshade, 
Deutzia, 
Deceitful charms. 
Coquetry. 
Fleeting beauty. 
Sadness. 
Falsehood. 
Joyful innocence. 
Devil-in-a-bush, . • Perplexity. 
Dew Plant, . . • Serenade. 
Dianthus barbatus, Sweet 
William, . . ■ Gallantry. 
Dianthus Chinensis, C/fe-svfPerseverance. Repulsed, but 
Pink, . ■ ■ not in despair. 
Dicentra spectabilis, Bleeding 
Heart, . . • Compassion. 
Dicentra cucullaria, Dutch¬ 
man's Breeches, . . Family authority. 
Dicentra Canadensis, Squir¬ 
rel Corn. Pleasant emotions. 
Dictamnus fraxinella, . Fire. 
Dionea muscipula, Venus' Deceit. Have I caught you 
Fly Trap, ... at last ? 

SENTIMENTS OF FLOWERS. 
Diosma, 
"I 
Your simple elegance charms 
me. 
Boldness. You’re too bold. 
Birth. 
Passion. 
Do not come near me. 
Meanness. 
Dipladenia crassinoda, 
Dittany of Crete, pink, 
Dittany of Crete, white, 
Dock, Burdock , 
Dodder, 
Oodecatheon, American Cow¬ 
slip, Ohio Beauty , . You are my divinity. 
Dogsbane, . . . Deceit. Falsehood. 
Dogwood, . . . False pretensions. 
Dolichos, . , . Rustic beauty. 
fchites atropurpurea. . Be warned in time, 
Jipglantine, Sweet Brier , I wound to heal. 
Echites suaveolens, Mande- 
villea. 
Elder, 
Elecampane, . 
Elm, English, 
Elm, American, 
Enchanters’ Nightshade 
Endive, 
A snare. 
Compassion. 
Tears. 
Dignity. 
Patriotism. 
I shall beware of your en¬ 
chantments. 
Frugality, 

116 SENTIMENTS OF FL O WERS. 
Epigsea repens, Trailing Ar¬ 
butus, May Flower, . Budding beauty. 
Erysimum, . . . Neglected beauty. 
Erythrina, Coral Plant, . Pride. 
Eschscholtzia, . . Do not refuse me. 
Eucharis Ainazonica, . A maiden’s charms. 
Euonymus, Spindle Tree, Your image is engraven on 
Eupatorium, 
Euphorbia, 
my heart. 
. Delay. 
. Deception. 
Euphorbia marginata, Snow- 
on-the-Mountain, 
Eutoca, 
Coldness. 
Cheerfulness 
Unceasing remembrance. 
Lasting pleasure. 
Inconstancy. 
Everlasting Flower, 
Everlasting Pea, 
Evening Primrose, 
Constancy. 
Worthy of all praise. 
Delicacy of feeling. 
Fascination. 
Argument. 
Reconciliation. 
Domestic industrv. 
Fenzlia, 
Fern, 
Fig, 
Filbert, 
Flax, 


118 SENTIMENTS OF FLOWERS. 
Geissomeria, 
. Duplicity. 
Giamma 
Genista, Broom , 
. Humility. Neatness. 
Gentian, 
. Hope. 
Goosefi* 
Geranium, Apple, 
. Present preference. 
Case® 
Geranium, horseshoe, 
. Thou art changed. 
Caul 
Geranium, Ivy-leaved, 
. Bridal decoration. 
Geranium, Nutmeg, 
. I expect a meeting. 
iSSi 
Geranium, Oak-leaved, 
. True friendship. 
Geranium, rose-scented, 
. Many are lovely, but you ex¬ 
Gsddcrl 
cel all. 
joea-lx 
Geranium, scarlet, . 
. Silliness. 
Geranium, silver-leaved, . Recall. 
Geranium, wild, Herb Robert Aversion. 
Gesneria, ... 
Excellence. 
iaand 
Gilia. 
Sociability. 
-M 
Gilliflower, 
Bonds of affection. 
Gladiolus, Corn Flag , 
Ready armed. 
31400, 
Gloxinia, 
Love at first sight. 
Gnaphalium, Everlasting, 
Never-ceasing remembrance- 
Goat’s Rue, 
Reason. 
A - 
Golden-rod, 
Precaution. 
dtdiniai 
Goldfussia, 
Fame. 
jfisjran 
Gomphrena globosa, ^^-Immortality. Unfading losfe. 
frmil 
aranth. 
j-'-nthnn 

SENTIMENTS OF FLOWERS. 
“ 9 
Grammanthes chloraeflora, 
Gooseberry, 
Goosefoot, 
Gorse or Furze, 
Gourd, 
Grape, wild, 
Grass, .... 
Greek Valerian, 
Guelder Rose, Snowball , 
Guinea-ben Flower, 
jilk abrothamnus, 
/jfjalesia, Silver Bell, 
Hamamelis, Witch Hazel, 
Harebell, . . 
Hawkweed, 
Hawthorn, 
Hazel, .... 
Heartsease, Pansy, 
Heath, . . 
Hebeclinium, • 
Hedysarum coronarium 
French Honeysuckle, 
Helianthemum, Rock Rose 
Hasty temper. 
Anticipation. 
Goodness. 
Endearing affection. 
Bulk. 
Charity. 
Submission. Utility. 
Rupture. 
Age. Thoughts of Heaven. 
Persecution. 
Cheerfulness in adversity. 
Good news. 
A spell. 
Submission. Grief. 
Quick-sightedness. 
Hope. 
Reconciliation. 
Thoughts. Remembrance. 
Solitude. 
Gentleness. 
> 
Rustic beauty. 
Popular favor. 

1 20 
SENTIMENTS OF FLOWERS. 
Helitrope, . . . Devotion. 
Hellebore, . . . Scandal. Calumny. 
Helleborus nieer. Black 
Hellebore. 
Hemlock, 
Hemp, 
Henbane, 
Hepatica, Liverwort , 
Herb Robert, . 
Hesperis matronali 
Rocket , 
Heterocentron . 
Hibiscus, 
Hieracium, Hawkweed ., 
Hoarhound, 
Holly, . 
Hollyhock, 
Honesty, . 
Honeysuckle, . 
Honeysuckle French, 
Hop, . 
Hornbeam, 
Horse Chestnut, 
Houseleek, 
Relieve my anxiety. 
You will cause my death. 
Fate. 
Imperfection. 
Confidence. 
Aversion. 
Rivalry. Thou vain co¬ 
quette. 
The bright side. 
Delicate Beauty. 
Quick-sightedness. 
Imitation. 
Domestic happiness. 
Ambition. 
Honesty. Fascination. 
Faithful affection. 
Rustic beauty, 
Injustice. 
Ornament. 
Luxury. 
Domestic economy. 

SENTIMENTS OF FLOWERS. 
121 
Houstonica, 
Hoya, Wax Plant, 
Humea elegans, 
Hunnemania, 
Hyacinth, purple, . 
Hyacinth, red and rose, 
Hyacinth, white, 
Hyacinth, yellow, . 
Hydrangea, 
Contentment. 
Susceptibility. 
Elegance and dignity. 
Insincerity. 
Sorrow. 
Sport. Game. Play. 
Unobtrusive loveliness. 
Jealousy. 
Assuming. Heartlessness, 
Hyoscyamus niger, Henbane, Imperfection. 
Hypericum, St. Johnswort, Superstition. 
Hyssop, . . . Cleanliness. 
Ice Plant, . . . Frigidity. Your looks freeze 
11 me. 
Iberis, Candytuft, . . Indifference. 
Impatiens balsamina, Repulsion. Touch me not! 
sam, . . . . Aproach not! 
Indian Jasmine, . . Timid worth. 
Indian Shot, . . . Revenge. Retaliation. 
Indian Strawberry, . . Desire to please. 
Indian Turnip, . . Ardor. Zeal. 
Indigo, false, . . . Imperfection. 
Inula helenium, Elecampane, Tears. 

122 
SENTIMENTS OF FLOWERS. 
Ipomcea, 
Ipomopsis, 
Iris, 
Ironwood, 
Ivy, 
Ixora, . . 
Japan Quince, 
o*Jf asmine, 
Jasmine, yellow, 
Jasmine, Indian, 
Jerusalem Cherry Tree, 
Jessamine, Chili, 
Jonquil, 
Judas Tree, 
Juniper, 
Justicia, 
Attachment. 
Excellence. 
A message for you. 
Ornament. 
Friendship. Fidelity. Mar¬ 
riage. 
Refinement. 
Delusion. Fairies Fire. 
Amiability. 
Grace. Elegance. 
Timid worth. 
Deception. 
A snare. 
Affection returned. 
Unbelief. Betrayal. 
Protection. I live for thee. 
Perfection of loveliness. 
f almia, American Laurel, Falsehood. Treachery. 
aulfussia. . . . Happiness in humble life. 
Kennedya, . . . Mental beauty. 
Kerria Japonica, . . Impatience of absence. 

SENTIMENTS OF FLOWERS. 
123 
41 abumum, 
Pensive beauty. 
JR'antana, 
Rigor. 
Lady’s Slipper, CypripediumQ, apricious beauty. 
Lagerstroemia, Crape Myrtle Eloquence. 
Lapageria rosea, 
Imperfection. There is 
unalloyed good. 
Larch, .... 
Audacity. Boldness. 
Larkspur, pink and white, 
Fickleness. 
Larkspur, purple, 
Haughtiness. 
Laurel, .... 
Glory. 
Laurel, American, . 
Falsehood. Treachery. 
Laurustinus, 
A token of love. 
Lavender, 
Confession of love. 
Leaves, dead, . 
Melancholy. 
Lechenaultia splendens, . 
You are charming. 
Lemon, 
Discretion. 
Lemon blossoms, 
Fidelity in love. 
Leonura, Motherwort , 
Secret love. 
Leptosiphon, . 
Hope. 
Lettuce, 
Cold-hearted. 
Libonia, 
Admiration. 
Lichen, 
Solitude. 
Lilac, . 
First Love. 

124 
SENTIMENTS OF FLOWERS. 
Lily, chequered, . . Persecution. 
Lily, water, . . . Purity of heart. 
Lily, white, . . . Purity. Sweetness. 
Lily, yellow, . . . False and gay. 
Lily of the valley, . . Delicacy. Unconscious 
sweetness. 
Linaria cymbalaria, Kenil¬ 
worth, Ivy, Coliseum Ivy, 
Ruins of Rome, . 
Linum, Flax , . 
Linden or Lime, 
Live Oak, 
Liverwort, 
Loasa, 
Lobelia, blue, . 
Lobelia cardinalis, . 
Locust blossoms, 
Locust leaves (green,) 
Lolium perenne, Darnel, . 
London Pride, 
Lopezia, 
Lotus, .... 
Love-in-a-mist, 
Love-lies-bleeding, . 
Remember me. 
Domestic industry. 
Conjugal love. 
Liberty. 
Confidence. 
Fair but false. 
Malevolence. 
Distinction. 
Elegance. 
Affection beyond the grave. 
Vice. 
Frivolity. 
True in trouble. 
Eloquence. 
Perplexity. 
Hopeless, not heartless. 


SENTIMENTS OF FLOWERS. 
12b 
Marigold and Cypress, . Despair. 
Marjoram, . . . Blushes. 
Martynia, . . . Indifference. 
Marvel of Peru; . . Timidity. 
Matthiola annua, Ten weeks 
Stock, . . . Promptness. 
Matthiola incana, Common 
Lasting beauty. 
Devotion. Constancy. 
Budding beauty. 
My best days are passed 
Truth. 
Stock , 
Maurandya, 
May Flower, . 
Meadow Saffron, 
Melaleuca, 
Melia azerdarach, Pride of 
India, . . . Dissension. 
Melissa officinalis, Balm, . Sympathy. 
Menyanthes trifoliata, Buck 
Bean, . . . Calm. Repose. 
Mesembryanthemum crystal- 
linum, Ice Plant, . . Your looks freeze me. 
Mesembryanthemun tricolor, 
Dew Plant, . . A serenade. 
Metrosideros, . . Mental brilliancy. 
Millefoil, . . .To heal a wounded heart. 
Mimosa, Sensitive Plant, Sensitiveness. 

SENTIMENTS OF FLOWERS. 
Mignonette, 
Mimulus, 
Mimulus moschatus, 
Mint, 
Mirabilis Jalapa, Four o 
Mistletoe, 
Mitraria coccinea, . 
Mock Orange, 
Monarda, 
Moneywort, 
Monkshood, 
Moonwort, 
Morning Glory, 
Moss, 
Motherwort, 
Mourning Bride, 
Mouse-ear Chickweed, 
Mugwort, 
Mulberry, black, 
Mulberry, white, 
Mullein, 
127 
. Moral and intellectual worth. 
Your qualities surpass your 
charms. 
. Fun. Jollity. 
. Weakness. 
. Virtue. 
'c/ocfiTimidity. 
. I surmount difficulties. 
. Indolence. Dullness. 
. Deceit. I cannot trust you. 
. Whims. 
. Acquisitiveness. 
. An enemy in disguise. 
. Forgetfulness. 
. Bonds. 
. Maternal love. 
. Secret love. 
. Unfortunate attachment. 
. Simplicity. 
. Good luck. Happiness. 
. Despair. I will not survive 
you. 
. Wisdom. 
. Good nature. 

128 
SENTIMENTS OF FLOWERS. 
Mushroom, . . . Suspicion. 
Musk plant, . . . Weakness. 
Mustard Seed, . . Indifference. 
Myosotis, Forget-me-not , . True love. 
Myrtle, .... Love. 
Myrtle, withered, . . Love betrayed. 
Myrsiphyllum asparagoides, 
Boston Smilax , . . Loveliness. 
arcissus, . . . Egotism. Over-confidence. 
^Nasturtium, . . . Honor the brave. 
Nelumbium speciosum,Z^MJ, Eloquence. 
Nemophila, . . . Success. 
Nettle, .... Cruelty. Slander. 
Nierembergia, . . . Timid worth. 
Night-bloojning Cereus, . Transient beauty 
Nightshade, . . . Suspicion. Artifice. 
Nigella, . . . Perplexity. 
Nolana, . . . Promptness. 
Nyctanthus, Indian Jasmine, Timid worth. 
f ak, . . . Hospitality. 
ak Leaves, . . Bravery. 
Oak, live, . . . Liberty. 


SENTIMENTS OF FLO WEES. 
130 
alafoxia, 
aim, 
Parsley, . 
Pasque-flower, 
Passion flower, . 
Pea, garden . 
Pea, perennial 
Pea, sweet 
Peach blossom, 
Pelargonium zonale, Horse 
shoe Geranium , 
Pennyroyal, 
Pentas camea, 
Pentstemon, 
Pseony, 
Pepper, 
Peppermint, 
Perilla, 
Periwinkle, 
Persicaria, 
Persimmon, 
Admiration. 
Victory. 
Festivity. Entertainment - 
You have no pretensions. 
Devotion. 
An appointed meeting. 
Wilt thou go with me ? 
Departure. 
Preference. I am yours.. 
Thou art changed. 
Flee, temptation. 
Bewitching. 
Well-bred. 
Ostentation. 
Your wit is too keen for your 
friendship. 
Warmth of feeling. 
Personal worth. 
Remembranee of early friend¬ 
ship. 
Restoration. 
Bury me amid nature’s beau¬ 
ties. 

SENTIMENTS OF FLOWERS. 
Tetunia, 
Your presence soothes me. 
Phacelia, 
Sociability. 
Phaseolus, Scarlet Runner , 
Winsome ways. 
Philadelphus, Syringa, 
Deceit. I cannot trust you- 
Phlox, 
Unanimity. Oursoulsareone 
Physianthus albus, . 
Good aspirations. 
Pigweed, 
Goodness. 
Pilea muscosa ,Artillery Plant, Your shafts are pointless. 
Pimpernel, 
Change. 
Pine, 
Hope in adversity. Time will 
cure. Time and philosophy. 
Pine, apple 
You are perfect. 
Pink, Chinese . 
Perseverence. Repulsed but 
not in dispair. 
Pink, red 
Pure and ardent love. 
Pink, variegated 
Refusal. 
Pink, white 
Artlessness. 
Pink, yellow 
Disdain. 
Platystemon, 
A favorite. 
Plum tree, 
Keep your promises. 
Plum tree, wild 
Independence. 
Plumbago, 
Holy wishes. 
Poinsettia, 
Vanity. 
Poker, red-hot . 
Forewarned is fore-armed. 

* 3 * 
SENTIMENTS OF FLOWERS. 
Polemonium, Greek Valerian, 
Polyanthus tuberosa, Tube¬ 
rose, 
Polyanthus Narcissus, 
Polygala, 
Pomegranate, . 
Poor man’s weather-glass, 
Poplar, black . 
Poplar, white . 
Poppy, red 
Poppy, variegated 
Poppy, scarlet . 
Poppy, white . 
Populus tremuloides, Aspen 
tree, 
Portulaca, 
Potato, 
Potentilla, 
Prickly Pear, . 
Pride of India, 
Pride of the meadow, 
Rupture. 
Personal charms. 
Over- confidence. 
Always charming. 
Mature elegance. 
Change. 
Courage. 
Time. 
Evanescent pleasure. 
Beauty without loveliness. 
Fantastic extravagance. 
Consolation. Forget the past 
and hope for the future. 
Lamentation. Fear. Exces¬ 
sive sensibility. 
Love in a cottage. 
Benevolence. 
I claim, at least, esteem. 
Satire. 
Dissension. 
Uselessness. 

Hire. 
Eics- 
Prlmrose, Chinese 
Primrose, evening 
Privet, 
Prunus triloba, 
Pulmonaria, Lungwort 
Pychnostachys, 
Pyrethrum, Feverfew 
Pyrus Japonica, 
Unconscious beauty. 
ning grace. 
Lasting love. 
Inconstancy. 
Prohibition, 
Pure affection. 
Thou art my life. 
Hope. 
Consolation. 
Delusion. Fairies’ fire. 
j j uaking Grass, 
'Wueen Plant, 
Quince, common 
Quince. Japan 
. Agitation. 
. Supremacy. Born to rule. 
. Temptation. 
'. Delusion. Fairies’ fire. 
f anunculus, garden 
anunculus, wild . 
Ragged Robbin, Scarlet Ly- 
Radiant with charms. 
Ingratitude. 
chnis, 
Raspberry, 
Red Bud, Judas-tree 
Red-hot Poker, 
Rhododendron, 
Wit. 
Remorse. 
Unbelief. Betrayal. 
Forewarned is forearmed. 
Danger. Beware. 

134 SENTIMENTS OF FLOWERS. 
Rhus continus, Purple fringe, Intellectual excellence. 
Rhus glabra, Sumac, 
Splendid misery. 
Richardia Africana, Calla, 
Magnificent beauty. 
Ricinus, 
Detestation. 
Robinia hispida, Rose Acacia Friendship. 
Robinia pseud-acacia, Locust 
tree, . . . . 
Elegance. 
Robinia pseud acacia, (green 
leaves) 
Affection beyond the grave. 
Rocket, sweet . 
Rivalry. Thou vain coquette. 
Rock Rose, 
Popular favor. 
Rondelctia, 
Intellectual but heartless. 
Rosebud, red 
Confession. Thou has stolen 
my affections. 
Rosebud, moss 
Confession of love. 
Rosebud, white 
Girlhood. 
Rose, dog or wild 
Simplicity — Let not this false 
world deceive you. 
Rose, red 
Love. 
Rose, tea 
Always lovely. 
Rose, white 
My heart is free. 
Rose, white, withered 
Transient impressions. 
Rose, yellow . . 
Jealousy. 
Rose Bay 
Danger. Beware. 

SENTIMENTS OF FLOWERS. 
Rose, bridal 
Rose, Campion 
Rosemary, 
Rudbeckia, 
Rue. 
Ruellia, . 
Rumex, Wild Sorrel 
Rush, . ■ 
f affron, 
afifron, meadow . 
Sage, 
Saint Johnswort, 
Salpiglossis, 
Salvia, blue, 
Salvia, red 
Sambucus, Elder 
■ Sanvitalia, 
Saponaria, 
Satin Flower, . 
Saxifraga umbrosa, 
• Scabiosa, Mourning bride, 
Happy love. 
Only deserve my love. 
Remembrance. Remember 
me. 
Pure-minded. 
Disdain. 
Constant remnmbrance. 
Wit ill-timed. He makes a 
foe who makes a jest. 
Docility. 
Beware of excess. 
My best days are past. 
Domestic virtues. 
Superstition. 
Political distinction. 
Wisdom. 
Energy. 
Compassion. 
Contentment. 
Humility. 
Honesty. Fascination, 
Frivolity. 
Unfortunate attachment. 

j 3 6 SENTIMENTS 
Scarlet Lychnis, 
Scarlet Runner, 
Schizanthus, 
Scypanthus. 
Sensitive Plant, 
Sensitive Rose, Shrankia un- 
cinata, 
Service Tree, 
Shad flower, 
Silene armeria, Catchfiy . 
Silver Bell, 
Siphocampylos, 
Sloe, .... 
Smilax, Boston 
Snapdragon, 
Snowball, 
Snowdrop, 
Snow-on-the-mountain, 
Solandra, 
Solanum dulcamara, Bittsr- 
sweet. .... 
OF FLOWERS. 
Wit. 
Winsome ways. 
Coquetry. 
Light-hearted. 
Sensitiveness. Timidity. 
Fearfulness. O’er young to 
leave my mother yet. 
Prudence. 
Prudence. 
I am a willing prisoner. 
Good news. 
Resolved to be noticed. 
Honesty. 
Loveliness. 
Deception. I have been flat¬ 
tered with false hopes. 
Age. Thoughts of heaven. 
Faithfulness. I am no sum¬ 
mer friend. 
Coldness. 
Generosity. 
Suspicion. Artifice. 

SENTIMENTS OF FLOWERS. 
137 
Solanum pseudo-capsicum, 
Jerusalem cherry, 
Solidago, Golden Rod 
Sollya,' . . . 
Sorbus aucupana, Mountain 
Ash, .... 
Sorrel, wild 
Sorrel, wood . 
Southernwood, 
Spearmint, 
Speedwell, 
Spiderwort, 
Spindle Tree, . 
Spirea filipendula, Pride of 
the Meadow, 
Spirea prunifolia, Bridal 
Wreath 
Spironoema, . 
Staff Tree, 
Staphyllea, Bladder Nut . 
Star of Bethlehem, . 
Statice, .... 
Deception. 
Precaution. 
A souvenir. 
Prudence. With me you are 
safe. 
Wit, ill-timed. He makes a 
foe who makes a jest. 
Joy- 
Jesting. 
Warmth of sentiment. 
My best wishes. 
Esteem—not love. 
Your image is engraven on 
my hearc. 
Uselessness. 
Plighted love. 
Modest merit. 
Fortitude. 
Social qualities. 
Reconciliation. 
Formality. 

138 SENTIMENTS OF FLOWERS. 
Stellaria media, Chickweed, Let us meet again. 
Stephanotus, 
Stock, Ten-weeks 
Stock, common 
Stonecrop, 
. Do you desire‘to travel ? 
. Promptness. 
. Lasting beauty. 
. Tranquility. 
Stramonium (Datura), Thorn 
Apple , 
Straw, broken . 
Straw, whole 
. Deceitful charms. 
. Rupture of a contract. 
. Union. 
Strawberry blossoms, . Foresight. 
Strelitza Reginse, Queenplant , Supremacy. Born to rule. 
Sumach. .... Splendid misery. 
Sunflower, 
Sweet Alyssum, 
Sweet Basil, 
Sweet Briar, 
Sweet Pea, 
Sweet Rocket, . 
Sweet William, 
Sycamore, . '. 
. Adoration. 
. Worth beyond beauty. 
. Good wishes. 
. I wound to heal. 
. Departure. Must you go ? 
. Rivalry. Thou vain coquette. 
. Gallantry. 
. Curiosity. 
J ansy, . 
yarn, 
Tassel flower, . 
. I declare war against you. 
. Vice. 
. Adulation. 

SENTIMENTS OF FLOWERS. 
139 
Teasel, .... 
Tendrils of climbers, 
Tephrosia Virginia, Goafs 
Rue , .... 
Thalia dealbata, 
Thistle, common 
Thistle, Scotch 
Thorn-apple, 
Thrift, Armeria vulgaris, 
Thunbergia, . . 
Thuya, Arbor vita, . 
Thyme, .... 
Tigridia Tiger-flower, 
Tradescantia, Spiderwort, 
Tricyrtis, 
Trillium, Wake-robin, 
Triptilion spinosum, . 
Tritoma, Red-hot poker , . 
Tropoeolum, 
Trumpet flower, 
Tuberose, 
Tulip, red , 
Misanthropy. 
Ties. 
Reason. 
Good-will. 
Austerity. 
Retaliation. 
Deceitful charms. 
Sympathy. 
Elegance of manners. 
Unchanging friendship. 
Activity, courage. 
For once may pride befriend 
me. 
Esteem—not love. 
Surprise.’ 
Modest beauty. 
Be prudent. 
Forewarned is forearmed. 
Patriotism. Honor to the 
brave. 
Separation. 
Personal charms. 
Declaration of love. 

I po 
SENTIMENTS OF FLOWERS. 
■t 
Tulip, variegated 
Tulip, yellow 
Tulip tree, 
Turnip, 
Tussilago, Coltsfoot, 
Tweedia, . 
in 
vularia, Bellwort, 
| enus’ Fly Trap, . 
Menus’ Looking Glass, 
Valerian, 
Beautiful eyes. 
Hopeless love. 
Rural happiness. 
Charity. 
Justice shall be done you. 
Faithful affection. 
Modesty. 
Verbena, . • . • 
Vernal Grass, . 
Veronica, Speedwell , , 
Viburnum opulus, Snowball, 
Viburnum tinus ,Laurustinus 
Vinca, 
Vine, Grape, 
Viola tricolor, Pansy, 
Violet, blue, 
Have I caught you at last. 
Flattery. 
An accommodating disposi 
tion. 
Sensibility. 
Poor, but happy. 
My best wishes. 
Age. Thoughts of heaven. 
, A token. 
Remembrance of early friend 
ship. 
Intoxication. 
Thoughts. Remembrance. 
Faithfulness. 

SENTIMENTS OF FLO WEES. 141 
Violet, white, . 
Violet, yellow 
Violet, sweet 
Virginia Creeper, 
Virginian Stock, 
Virgin’s Bower, 
Volkameria, 
Retirement. I must be sought 
to be found. 
Rural happiness. 
Modesty. 
I cling to you both, in sun¬ 
shine and shade. 
True friendship. 
Filial affection. 
Good wishes. May you be 
happy. 
'Ilake Robin 
^all Flower, 
Walnut, 
Water Lily, 
Wax Plant, 
Weigela, 
Wheat Stalk, . 
White Fringe Tree, 
Whitlavia, 
Whortleberry, . 
Willow, weeping, 
Winter Cherry, 
Wisteria, 
Modest beauty. 
Fidelity in adversity. 
Stratagem. 
Purity of heart. 
Susceptibility. 
Maiden beauty. 
Riches. 
Candor. 
Constancy. 
Treachery. 
Mourning. 
Deception. 
Welcome, fair stranger! 


The Flower Language—principles. 15 
Flowers by the poets... i2 
Floral conversation. 
The old gardener’s story,. 43 
Expressions in bouquets. g 0 
Secret correspondence. 6y 
Floral decorations. fig 
Thanksgiving Day. fig 
Christmas. y6 
Easter. jg 
Decoration Day. jg 
Birthday Celebrations. 80 
Weddings. 81 
Funeral Ceremonies. 81 
The Church. 82 
Cemetery Decorations. 84 
Preparing skeleton leaves. 92 
Drying Flowers with their natural colors. 94 
Autumn leaves... 97 
Drying Sea Mosses. 99 
Plants and flowers and their sentiments. 101