The Language of Flowers
The Language of Flowers. Edited by . Boston : De Vries, Ibarra, & Co.
MARGARET FULLER said that everybody liked gossip, and the only difference was in the choice of a subject. A bookful of gossip about flowers — their loves and hates, thoughts and feelings, genealogy and cousinships — is certainly always attractive. Who does not like to hear that Samphire comes from Saint-Pierre, and Tansy from Athanasie, and that Jerusalem Artichokes are a kind of sunflower, whose baptismal name is a corruption of girasole, and simply describes the flower’s love for the sun ? Does this explain all the Jerusalems which are scattered through our popular flora, — as Jerusalem Beans and Jerusalem Cherries? The common theory has been that the sons of the Puritans, by a slight theological reaction, called everything which was not quite genuine on week-days by that name which sometimes wearied them on Sundays.
It is pleasant also to be reminded that our common Yarrow (Achillea millefolium) dates back to Achilles, who used it to cure his wounded friend, and that Mint is simply Menthe, transformed to a plant by the jealous Proserpine. It is refreshing to know that Solomon’s Seal was so named by reason of the marks on its root; and that this root, according to the old herbalists, “stamped while it is fresh and greene, and applied, taketh away in one night, or two at the most, any bruse, black or blew spots gotten by falls, or woman’s wilfulness in stumbling upon their hasty husband’s fists, or such like.” It was surely a generous thing in Solomon, who set his seal of approbation upon the rod, to furnish in that same signet a balm for injuries like these.
This pretty gift-book is the first really American contribution to the language of flowers. It has many graceful and some showy illustrations ; its floral emblems are not all exotic ; and though the editor's appellation may at first seem so, a simple application of the laws of anagram will reveal a name quite familiar, in America, to all lovers of things horticultural.