he pages of the Sacred Volume, or to the
early Greek writings, we find the symbolism of flowers most eloquently
illustrated, while Persian poetry is rich in allusions of the same kind.
Indeed, as Mr. Ingram has remarked in his "Flora Symbolica,"[1]--Every
age and every clime has promulgated its own peculiar system of floral
signs, and it has been said that the language of flowers is as old as
the days of Adam; having, also, thousands of years ago, existed in the
Indian, Egyptian, and Chaldean civilisations which have long since
passed away. He further adds how the Chinese, whose, "chronicles
antedate the historic records of all other nations, seem to have had a
simple but complete mode of communicating ideas by means of florigraphic
signs;" whereas, "the monuments of the old Assyrian and Egyptian races
bear upon their venerable surfaces a code of floral telegraphy whose
hieroglyphical meaning is veiled or but dimly guessed at in our day."
The subject is an extensive one, and also enters largely into the
ceremonial use of flowers, many of which were purposely selected for
certain rites from their long-established symbolical character. At the
same time, it must be remembered that many plants have had a meaning
attached to them by poets and others, who have by a license of their own
made them to represent certain sentiments and ideas for which there is
no authority save their own fancy.

Hence in numerous instances a meaning, wholly misguiding, has been
assigned to various plants, and has given rise to much confusion. This,
too, it may be added, is the case in other countries as well as our own.

Furthermore, as M. de Gubernatis observes, "there exist a great number of
books which pretend to explain the language of flowers, wherein one may
occasionally find a popular or traditional symbol; but, as a rule, these
expressions are generally the wild fancies of the author himself."
Hence, in dealing with plant language, one is confronted with a host of
handbooks, many of which are not only inaccurate, but misleading. But in
enumerating the recognised and well-known plants that have acquired a
figurative meaning, it will be found that in a variety of cases this may
be traced to their connection with some particular event in years past,
and not to some chance or caprice, as some would make us believe. The
amaranth, for instance, which is the emblem of immortality, received its
name, "never-fading," from the Greeks on account of t