ht 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. 197-8.

5. "Plant-lore of Shakespeare."

6. "Flower-lore," p. 168.

CHAPTER XV.

FABULOUS PLANTS.

The curious traditions of imaginary plants found amongst most nations
have partly a purely mythological origin. Frequently, too, they may be
attributed to the exaggerated accounts given by old travellers, who,
"influenced by a desire to make themselves famous, have gone so far as
to pretend that they saw these fancied objects." Anyhow, from whatever
source sprung, these productions of ignorance and superstition have from
a very early period been firmly credited. But, like the accounts given
us of fabulous animals, they have long ago been acknowledged as
survivals of popular errors, which owed their existence to the absence
of botanical k