THE LANGUAGE OF FLOWERS.
“By all those token flowers that tell
What words can never speak so well.”
Byron.
But little study will be requisite for the science which we teach. Nature
has been before us. We must, however, premise two or three rules. When
a flower is presented in its natural position, the sentiment is to be understood
affirmatively; when reversed, negatively. For instance, a rosebud, with its
leaves and thorns, indicates fear with hope; but, if reversed, it must be con-strued
as saying, “you may neither fear nor hope.” Again, divest the same
rosebud of its thorns, and it permits the most sanguine hope; deprive it of its
petals, and retain the thorns, and the worst fears are to be apprehended.—
The expression of every flower may be thus varied by varying its state or position.
The Marygold is emblematical of pain; place it on the head and it
signifies trouble of mind; on the heart, the pangs of love; on the bosom, the
disgusts of ennui. The pronoun I is expressed by inclining the symbol to the
right, and the pronoun thou, by inclining it to the left.
These are a few of the rudiments of our significant language. We call
upon Friendship and Love to unite their discoveries to ours; for it is in the
power only of these sweetest sentiments of our nature to bring to perfection
what they have so beautifully invented, the mystical, yet pleasing, links of intelligence,
that bind the soul in the tender and quiet harmony of the one, or in
the more impassioned felicity of the other.—Preface to the Language of Flowers.
