C H A P T E R XV.
p P a n t ^ynTBof^rrj a ? ^ feanguage.
H E antiquity of floral emblems probably dates
from the time when the human heart first beat
with the gentle emotions of affeétion or throbbed
with the wild pulsations of love. Then it was
that man sought to express through the instrumentality
of flowers his love of purity and
beauty, or to typify through their aid the ardour
of his passionate desires ; for the symbolism of
flowers, it has been conjectured, was first conceived as a parable
speaking to the eye and thence teaching the heart.
Driven, in his struggle for existence, to learn the properties
of plants in order to obtain wholesome food, man found that
with the beauty of their form and colour they spoke lovingly
to him. They could be touched, tasted, handled, planted, sown,
and reaped : they were useful, easily converted into simple articles
of clothing, or bent, twisted, and cut into weapons and tools.
Flowers became a language to man very early, and according
to their poisonous, soothing, or nutritious qualities, or on account
of some peculiarities in their growth or shape which seemed to
tell upon the mysteries of life, birth, and death, he gave them
names which thenceforth became words and symbols to him of
these phenomena.
Glimpses of the ancient poetical plant symbolism have been
found amid the ruins of temples, graven on the sides of rocks, and
inscribed on the walls of mighty caves where the early nations of
India, Assyria, Chaldaea, and Egypt knelt in adoration. The
Chinese from time immemorial have known a comprehensive
system of floral signs and emblems, and the Japanese have ever
possessed a mode of communicating by symbolic flowers. Persian
literature abounds in chaste and poetical allegories, which demonstrate
the antiquity of floral symbolism in that far Eastern land :
thus we are told that Sadi the poet, when a slave, presented to his
tyrant master a Rose accompanied with this pathetic appeal : _
“ Do good to thy servant whilst thou hast the power, for the season
of power IS often as transient as the duration of this beautiful
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flower.” The beauty of the symbol melted the heart of his lord,
and the slave obtained his liberty.
The Hindu racs are passionately fond of flowers, and their
ancient Sanscrit books and poems are full of allusions to their
beauty and symbolic charadter. With them, the flower of the field
is venerated as a symbol of fecundity. In their mythology, at the
beginning of all things there appeared in the waters the expanded
Lotus-blossom, the emblematic flower of life and light ; the Sun,
Moon, and Stars are flowers in the celestial garden ; the Sun’s
ray is a full-blown Rose, which springs from the waters and feeds
the sacrificial fire ; the Lightning is a garland of flowers thrown by
Narada. Pushpa (flower), or Pushpaka (flowery), is the epithet
applied to the luminous car of the god Kuvera, which was seized
by Râvana, the royal monster of Lankâ, and recaptured by the
demi-god Râma, the incarnation of Vishnu. The bow of Kâma,
the Indian Cupid, darts forth flowers in the guise of arrows. The
Indian poetic lover gathers from the flowers a great number of
chaste and beautiful symbols. The following description of a
young maiden struck down by illness is a fair example of this :—
“ All of a sudden the blighting glance of unpropitious fortune
having fallen on that Rose-cheeked Cypress, she laid her head on
the pillow of sickness ; and in the flower-garden of her beauty,
in place of the Damask Rose, sprang up the branch of the Saffron.
Her fresh Jasmine, from the violence of the burning illness, lost its
moisture, and her Hyacinth, full of curls, lost all its endurance
from the fever that consumed her.”
It was with the classic Greeks, however, that floral symbolism
reached its zenith : not only did the Hellenic race entertain an ex-'
traordinary passion for flowers, but with consummate skill they
devised a code of floral types and emblems adapted to all phases
of public and private life. As Loudon writes, when speaking of the
emblematic use made by the Greeks of flowers :—“ Not only were
they then, as now, the ornament of a beauty, and of the altars of the
gods, but the youths crowned themselves with them in the fêtes,
the priests in religious ceremonies, and the guests in convivial
meetings. Garlands of flowers were suspended from the gates
of the city in the times of rejoicing . . . the philosophers
wore crowns of flowers, and the warriors ornamented their foreheads
with them in times of triumph.” The Romans, although they
adopted most of the floral symbolic lore of their Hellenic predecessors,
and in the case of emblematic garlands were particularly
refined, were still evidently not so passionately fond of floral
symbolism as were the Greeks ; and with the decadence of the
Empire, the attractive art gradually fell into oblivion.
The science of plant symbolism may, if we accept the views
of Miss Marshall, a writer on the subjecil,* be classified into five
‘ Plant Symbolism,’ in ‘ Natural History Notes,’ Vol. II.
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