flowers in the hedge, and exclaimed, "Here is the periwinkle still in
flower."
Thirty years afterwards the sight of the periwinkle in flower carried
his memory back to this occasion, and he inadvertently cried, "Ah, there
is the periwinkle." Incidents of the kind have originated many of the
symbols found in plant language, and at the same time invested them
with a peculiar historic interest.
Once more, plant language, it has been remarked, is one of those
binding links which connects the sentiments and feelings of one country
with another; although it may be, in other respects, these communities
have little in common. Thus, as Mr. Ingram remarks in the introduction
to his "Flora Symbolica" (p. 12), "from the unlettered North American
Indian to the highly polished Parisian; from the days of dawning among
the mighty Asiatic races, whose very names are buried in oblivion, down
to the present times, the symbolism of flowers is everywhere and in all
ages discovered permeating all strata of society. It has been, and still is,
the habit of many peoples to name the different portions of the year after
the most prominent changes of the vegetable kingdom."
In the United States, the language of flowers is said to have more
votaries than in any other part of the world, many works relative to
which have been published in recent years. Indeed, the subject will
always be a popular one; for further details illustrative of which the
reader would do well to consult Mr. H.G. Adams's useful work on the
"Moral Language and Poetry of Flowers," not to mention the constant
allusions scattered throughout the works of our old poets, such as
Shakespeare, Chaucer, and Drayton.
Footnotes: 1. Introduction, p. 12. 2. Folkard's "Plant Legends," p. 389. 3. See Judith
xv. 13. 4. "Flower-lore," pp. 197-198. 5. "Plant-lore of Shakespeare." 6. "Flower-
lore," p. 168.