BY MRS. SARAH JOSEPHA HALE, EDITOR OF THE 'LADY'S BOOK,' AND AUTHOR OF 'NORTHWOOD,' 'SKETCHES 'A flower I love, Not for itself, but that its name is linked FOURTEENTH EDITION, IMPROVED BOSTON: BENJAMIN B. MUSSEY & CO. 25228.34.32 HARYARD COLLEGE LIBRARY JAMES STURGIS PRAY May 12, 1925 D Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1833, by MARSH, CAPEN & LYON, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of Massachusetts. INTRODUCTION. IN arranging this little work, it was my purpose to combine, with the names and remembrances of flowers, a selection of sentiments from our best poets. I hoped my experiment would give an increased interest to botanical researches among young people, at least; and among all classes would promote a better acquaintance with the beauties of our own literature. There is nothing new attempted, except in the arrangement, and the introduction of American sentiments. Flowers have alwavs been symbols of the affections, probably ever since our first parents tended theirs in the garden of God's own planting. They seem hallowed from that association, and intended naturally to represent pure, tender and devoted thoughts and feelings. The expression of these feelings has been, in all ages, the province of poetry, and to the poets we must refer, in order to settle the philology of flowers. This I have endeavored to do. I have carefully searched the poets and writers on Eastern manners, where flowers are, even now, the messengers of the heart, and have selected such interpretations, (for these authorities, like other philologists, sometimes differ,) as appeared most reasonable from the character and history of the flower. I have given the generic and usually the specific name, also the class, order, and native country of each flower. These par ticulars will be of some use, if the study of botany is pursued; or, at any rate, they must associate in the mind of the reader some notion of the science. A knowledge of the locality of the plant would, I thought, assist us to judge somewhat of its character and adaptation to our gardens and green-houses; and the size of the volume to which I was restricted, prevented me from entering into long descriptions and scientific explanations. I name these |