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271
The Folk-lore of Plants
·
T. F. Thiselton-Dyer
151
Footnotes:
1.
"Dictionary
of
English
Plant
Names,"
by
J.
Britten
and
Robert
Holland.
1886.
2.
"English
Plant
Names,"
Introduction,
p.
xiii.
3.
See
Folkard's
"Legends,"
p.
309;
Friend's
"Flowers
and
Flowerlore,"
ii.
401-5.
4.
See
"Flower-lore,"
p.
74.
5.
Friend's
"Flower-lore,"
ii.
425.
6.
Garden,
June
29,
1872.
7.
Johnston's
"Botany
of
Eastern
Borders,"
1853,
p.
177.
8.
Lady
Wilkinson's
"Weeds
and
Wild
Flowers,"
p.
269.
CHAPTER
XIV.
PLANT
LANGUAGE.
Plant
language,
as
expressive
of
the
various
traits
of
human
character,
can
boast
of
a
world-wide
and
antique
history.
It
is
not
surprising
that
flowers,
the
varied
and
lovely
productions
of
nature's
dainty
handiwork,
should
have
been
employed
as
symbolic
emblems,
and
most
aptly
indicative
oftentimes
of
what
words
when
even
most
wisely
chosen
can
ill
convey;
for
as
Tennyson
remarks:--
"Any
man
that
walks
the
mead
In
bud,
or
blade,
or
bloom,
may
find
A
meaning
suited
to
his
mind."
Hence,
whether
we
turn
to
the
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.
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