The Language of Flowers

by Kate Greenaway (Artist)

The nineteenth-century classic combines delicately rendered pictures of flowers, children, and young women with lists of meanings associated with particular flowers and poems by Burns, Shelley, Wordsworth, and others

Genres: Nonfiction, Reference, Nature, Poetry, Art, Gardening, Plants

64 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1884

About the author

Kate Greenaway (Catherine Greenaway) (1846-1901) was a children's book illustrator and writer. Her first book, Under the Window (1879), a collection of simple, perfectly idyllic verses concerning children who endlessly gathered posies, untouched by the Industrial Revolution, was a best-seller. The Kate Greenaway Medal, established in her honour in 1955, is awarded annually by the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals in the UK to an illustrator of children's books. New techniques of photolithography enabled her delicate watercolors to be reproduced. Through the 1880s and 90s, in popularity her only rivals in the field of children's book illustration were Walter Crane and Randolph Caldecott, himself also the eponym of a highly-regarded prize medal. Amongst her other works are: A Day in a Child's Life (1881), Mother Goose; or, The Old Nursery Rhymes (1881), Little Ann (with Ann Taylor & Jane Taylor) (1883), Marigold Garden (1885), A Apple Pie (1886), Pied Piper of Hamelin (1888) and Kate Greenaway's Book of Games (1889).

Reviews

[Lisa Vegan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a lovely birthday gift. It’s a keeper. I love that it’s now on my bookshelves.

This is a book whose whole I loved its better than the sum of its parts.

I appreciate that this reprint is unabridged and contains the entire 1884 book. In addition to the lists of flowers and their meanings, there are poems (by well-known poets) about flowers, and there are lovely illustrations. Different editions of the newly reprinted book have different cover illustrations; I don’t know which, if any, is the original.

I like how there are alphabetical lists of the flowers and also another alphabetical list of the meanings. It was easy to look up and find both the flowers and the meanings really easily.

I would love to have learned HOW and WHY the flowers’ meanings were chosen. This book has nothing about that.

What I don’t like about this language of flowers is how many of my favorite flowers have horrible meanings. I don’t personally believe in their meanings but some people might and back in 1800s England I assume many people did so I do wonder if flowers were given/used on the basis of their meanings and not how much they were admired & loved or how beautiful they were or how pleasing their aroma. Some of the meanings are as I would have guessed: love, inspiration, hope, compassion, joy, levity, beauty, youthful love, friendship, and many others. Some are maybe appropriate for funeral flowers: Alas! for my poor heart, calm repose, consolation, sorrow, mourning, my regrets follow you to the grave, widowhood, sympathy, for instance. Many others are truly awful: indifference, coldheartedness, aversion, disgust, deceit, horror, haughtiness, meanness, malevolence, misanthropy, rudeness, revenge, war, and many more. For me it seems odd to label flowers with such negative meanings, unless they’re poisonous and then I could see it making sense.

The meanings are for flowers and also include trees, shrubs, grasses, tendrils of climbing plants, etc.

I was disappointed that one of my favorite flowers wasn’t there but perhaps they weren’t around yet when the book was first published in 1884 or most likely they just weren’t grown/found/known about in England/the British Isles. It’s the California poppy, which is usually a lovely orange, and rarely yellow or cream; I like the orange ones. There are meanings for other colors of poppies but not orange ones.

I like the idea of the “language of flowers” (that I think I first learned about when I read The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh) more than I actually like its execution. This will still be a great book to occasionally take of the shelf and view, either to look up a particular flower or meaning or to just enjoy a poem, a picture, or just the lovely presentation.

I’m struggling to read and this was the perfect book to pick up to read for a bit. I did read it cover to cover but just a few pages at a time so it did take me a long time to read. It doesn’t have to be read cover to cover to enjoy it and I assume many readers will just casually peruse the pages and it’s a fine book to read that way too.

[J. Boo · Rating 3 out of 5]

A foreign language dictionary, or rather a floral language dictionary. It contains a list of translations from type of flower to Victorian meaning, another of Victorian meaning to flower, and then a bunch of flowery (and, I suspect, public domain) poems to pad the page count. Some nice Greenaway pictures, loosely related to one of the floral definitions. Or possibly that's coincidence. Also, flower pictures, of course, but I don't think any of them were actually of the flowers that happened to be listed on the page. I suspect that Greenaway wanted a bit of cash and came up with an idea to use extra illustrations she had lying around.

Recommended to me by Edith Nesbit roughly a century ago -- the gift of a book entitled "Language of Flowers" kicks off the action of her "The Wonderful Garden". There are several with this rather generic title, but I suspect that this version is that to which she was referring (children's book authors stick together!)

NB I was in a used book store recently and found a lovely illustrated copy... illustrated, that is, for the first dozen pages. Then nothing. So be warned. The original has pictures through around page 48, with the "poetic section" and the English-to-Flowerese list unillustrated.

3/5. A reference, not something to peruse, unless one wants to skim through and enjoy some Greenaway pictures. Available on Gutenberg.

[Esencia a libro nuevo · Rating 4 out of 5]

“El lenguaje de las flores” es un libro de corta extensión pero que no debería faltar en la biblioteca de todo un amante de las flores, de sus olores, sus pigmentos y su significado. El libro consta de dos partes. En la primera encontramos por orden alfabético la flor o el árbol y lo que significa o en qué contexto regalarla. En la segunda, encontramos, también por orden alfabético, el sentimiento que indica o en qué contexto regalar la supuesta flor. Por ejemplo, la rosa amarilla simboliza la infidelidad; el naranjo, seducción; el membrillo, la tentación; y, la lechuga, frialdad. Pero lo que más me ha gustado de este libro han sido las ilustraciones de Kate Greenaway: preciosas, con muchos detalles, con colores alegres y algunas otras más minimalistas, pero igualmente bonitas. Al final del libro vienen unas páginas en blanco, espacio que se agradece y aprovecharé para pegar pétalos de mis flores favoritas. Una guía práctica, bien organizada y preciosa que emana mucha dulzura, recomendada para los más curiosos, los más enamoradizos y sobre todo para los amantes de toda la gama de colores, perfumes y simbolismos que pueden llegar a desprender las flores. Mención especial para @carmen_lomana (porque este libro me recuerda a ella y por enseñarme el valor de las flores) y para @loslibrosdepaula (por enseñarme la existencia de este librito).

[Loraine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Her illustrations are just so gorgeous. A bouquet of flowers could certainly send a message for good or ill with the knowledge this little book imparts! A lost art of communication.

[GoldGato · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kate Greenaway was a nineteenth-century illustrator and writer of children’s books, famous for her drawings of characters in Queen Anne-style costumes. She produced greeting cards which were very popular, filled with the delicate art nouveau renderings that came to be associated as “Greenaway” artwork. This book is her collection of flower names and their associated meanings, which are rather interesting.

Although each flower isn’t illustrated, each one is listed next to their “language”. Some examples are:

Cranberry = Cure for heartache
Honeysuckle = Generous and devoted affection
Mistletoe = I surmount difficulties
Oak Leaves = Bravery
Quince = Temptation
Tansy = I declare war against you

I thought this would be a quick read, but each flower and its meaning gave me pause, so that I would then research why the plant would be associated with such language. It’s a small, easy-to-hold book, full of descriptions I never would have associated with anything in my garden. My Pomegranate tree never stops growing all over the place, no matter how many times I prune it. Perhaps this is because it is associated with foolishness, which explains a lot. Cute little book.

Book Season = Spring (hope and comfort)

[Sharayu Gangurde · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a beautiful read on flowers and what they convey! Exotic and replete with nuances of poetry. Delightful stroll in the world of flowers.

[Helena · Rating 3 out of 5]

A lovely little book with some really nice poetry at the end.

[Carrey 🍓 · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book features beautiful illustrations, with each plant or flower accompanied by its symbolic meaning in Victorian society.

It serves as a charming compendium of Victorian floral traditions, offering both visual appeal and fascinating historical context.

⭐️⭐️⭐️❌❌/5.

If anyone is interested to check this book out, you can through the Internet Archive for free.

[Joshua (ithildins) · Rating 5 out of 5]

The soft illustrations complemented how the text was formatted. An alphabetical listing of flowers and the meanings, and then an alphabetical list of meanings and the corresponding flowers at the end, depending on one's needs.

[Nabilah · Rating 3 out of 5]

The illustrations made up for the spelling and other flaws in the text, which I think 100% caused by bad OCR scan

[Isabelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Such a cute book; so happy I found it at an estate sale! Lost one star bc this edition apparently doesn’t include the poems from the original :(

[Cheryl · Rating 2 out of 5]

Beautiful renderings of common flowers, but the meanings were iffy. We assign all these meanings to pieces of carbon that brighten our days and we have a history of superstition and folklore that is not always appropriate. I sought out some other sources for meanings of some of my favorite flowers, and then added my own as a lovely meditation.

Aspen tree means lamentation, or shield and protection, or rebirth, contemplation, eloquence. Aspen bark photosynthesizes even in winter, and is the only tree to do so, so I call it the tree of breath.

Asters mean variety and afterthought, or daintiness or wisdom and devotion. Yellow asters are some of the brightest, most sunlight-est flowers in the mountains, so it means for me, the sun and sunlight.

Barberry means sourness of temper or energy and optimism. I had a beautiful barberry bush outside my patio that was removed abruptly and traumatically, and I miss it everyday, but it lives somewhere deep inside me, in contradiction since its leaves were sharp and hurt but the yellow flowers solace; I also found it in the desert in Utah in large shrubs and covering the forest floor in the mountains, so it means universality to me.

Bluebell means constancy, humility , everlasting love, gratitude. The different types of bluebells in the mountains always catch my breath and my eye, and blue is one of my favorite colors for flowers, as if the blue sky is made visible. So they will mean the vastness of the sky for me.

Cactus means warmth, endurance, seeing beyond what is visible. Seeing beyond what is visible is perfect. The various cacti in my life are full of surprise and color and originality and bespeak of survival and hope.

Cinquefoil, nurturing affection, wisdom, loyalty, the feminine, and middle ages architecture. Cinquefoil is another yellow, sunshiney flower that glows many places I love, and means abundance to me.

Clematis means mental beauty, ingenuity, deep connection to outdoors. The western clematis surprised me by mimicking a columbine with its purple petals and yellow stamens in the middle, and even more shocking, I seem to be the only person on the planet that sees it and is amazed by it. While I appreciate the meaning of connection to the outdoors, I will remember it as wonder.

Columbine means folly unless purple then resolved to win or just resolution, expanded consciousness, good fortune, romantic love, reverence. I disagree with any flower meaning something negative, and it is so lovely, so intricate, it seems to be a transported tropical flower. It has layers of meaning for me, but the deepest meaning is of beauty of nature in simplicity and reverence.

Fir Tree means elevation, eternal light. As conifers and pines are the dominant tree of my Colorado forests, I will keep the eternal light meaning, and most specifically because of the effects I can find in the background with certain camera tricks, the light not seen to the naked eye, but there, in the bokeh effects, the sparkle and holy sparks we are able to absorb and feel eternally.
Flax means fate or I feel your kindness, tranquility. Another favored blue flower, blue flax is one of the first flowers of spring in the mountains, and makes me think of my mother, so it means maternal love to me.

Wild geraniums: steadfast piety, elegance, melancholy or positive emotions. Wild geraniums carpet the forest floor in spring and summer, and I loved that some sources say melancholy and others say positive emotions. How can one thing be both, I wonder at first, but then so often we humans find ourselves the same. So it means what it feels like to be alive.

Hibiscus delicate beauty, the feminine, charm. Hibiscus flowers are another wonder, bursting with tropical sunshine and elaborate color and design, a more robust and forceful beauty that brings me joy, so it will mean joyfulness.

Hydrangea, heartlessness or gratitude for being understood, or emotion, understanding. Blue hydrangeas are beloved; nature has overtaken my mother’s hydrangeas at my childhood home, but I dream it lives under the soil, able to rise up again one day if the conditions are right, so it means unconditional love.

Juniper, succor, protection or hope and faith, regeneration, cleansing. I named my puppy Juniper because I love the tree and the name is lyrical, and the scent divine, and the blue berries a beautiful color of blue that seems to shine from within, singing almost, so it will mean the song of my heart.

Larkspur open heart, lightness. Mountain larkspur are plentiful and elusive, growing in certain places but not others, like me and others I know who follow their wandering hearts, so wanderer will be its meaning.

Lupine, imagination, admiration, positivity, another blue purple wildflower that glows from within, and seems to personify the mountains I love, bring them closer to the ground, and shine with being and beauty. I will remember it as imagination.

Mallow, mildness or beneficence or consumed by love or healing. The orange globemallow of Utah and Colorado never fail to surprise me with its deep orange that seems to evoke the tropics also, like the flowers remain after the shallow seas that were here drained away. Learning about geology has opened my mind and heart like nothing else in my life, and I dream in layer of rock and geological time, so mallows will mean for me, deep time.

Maple, reserve, generosity, abundance. Maple, maple syrup, are the sweetest to look at and taste and the green of the leaves before they turn into the multicolored flames of time, hold the deepest green that feels like the earth, so I will accept generosity as their meaning.

Oak leaves, bravery; Oak tree, hospitality; white oak, independence. The many hundreds of year old oak tree right out side my childhood home window follows me and shades everything I feel about nature. It is majesty and familiarity; it is abundance and protection. It has made me brave and independent, so the most simple meaning I can give it is life itself, a life, my life.

______________________________________________________
RADIANT sister of the day
Awake! arise! and come away!
To the wild woods and the plains,
To the pools where winter rains
Image all their roof of leaves,
Where the pine its garland weaves
Of sapless green, and ivy dun,
Round stems that never kiss the sun,
Where the lawns and pastures be
And the sandhills of the sea,
Where the melting hoar-frost wets
The daisy star that never sets,
And wind-flowers and violets
Which yet join not scent to hue
Crown the pale year weak and new:
When the night is left behind
In the deep east, dim and blind,
And the blue moon is over us,
And the multitudinous
Billows murmur at our feet,
Where the earth and ocean meet
And all things seem only one
In the universal sun.
P. B. SHELLEY.

THERE grew pied Wind-flowers and Violets,
Daisies, those pearl'd Arcturi of the earth,
The constellated flowers that never set;
Faint Oxlips; tender Blue-bells, at whose birth
The sod scarce heaved; and that tall flower that wets
Its mother's face with Heaven-collected tears,
When the low wind, its playmate's voice, it hears.

And in the warm hedge grew lush Eglantine,
Green Cow-bind and the moonlight-colour'd May
And cherry blossoms, and white cups, whose wine
Was the bright dew yet drained not by the day;
And Wild Roses, and Ivy serpentine
With its dark buds and leaves, wandering astray,
And flowers azure, black, and streaked with gold,
Fairer than any wakened eyes behold.

And nearer to the river's trembling edge
There grew broad flag-flowers, purple prankt with white,
And starry river buds among the sedge,
And floating Water-lilies, broad and bright,
Which lit the oak that overhung the hedge
With moonlight beams of their own watery light;
And bulrushes, and reeds of such deep green
As soothed the dazzled eye with sober sheen.
P. B. SHELLEY.

[Dumbey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cool, I might use it as a reference to write some love letters in the future. The problem is that some meanings don’t seem to fit the flowers. It would’ve been great if there were some history behind the meanings to clear up the confusion and contradictions.

[iam · Rating 3 out of 5]

Charming little reference book that has become the authority on flowers and their human-imposed meanings.

[Mel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Always used this as a reference during college lit. classes!

[Nostalgia Reader]

https://archive.org/stream/languageof...

[Tessa · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a reference book rather than one you would read straight through but it is lovely.

[Anastasia · Rating 4 out of 5]

My bible

[Pauline · Rating 4 out of 5]

nostalgic

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Delightful! A wonderful, wonderful gift. <3

[Mandy Bookstagram · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rachel Ruysch’s “A Vase Of Flowers” (1689)

The language of flowers (floriography) is a means of communicating through the arrangement of flowers and has been practiced for thousands of years in traditional cultures. Flowers have been used as symbols in art and literature for centuries, with examples dating as far back as the Bible and classical works of Shakespeare. In seventeenth century Europe flower gardens were cultivated in wealthy homes as a sign of prosperity and affluence; arrangements of specific blooms would have been given as gifts to express emotions that were not appropriate to be spoken aloud in Victorian society or used to decorate the interior of a home. The average citizen typically would not be able to afford flower gardens or simple bouquets, and during the early seventeenth century floral still lives became an affordable alternative to real flowers and would last much longer than real floral displays. Historically, flowers have been used to romantically capture the archetypal ideas of beauty. Flowers laden with symbolism predominate much of the work of artists like Ruysch, who are admired for their idealistic representation of women and emphasis on nature and morality.

Dutch painter Rachel Ruysch specialized in ornately decorated floral still lives that were often an amalgamation of blooms that would not typically be seen growing together or even be arranged in the same vase. “A Vase Of Flowers” (1689), which is now located in the San Diego Art Museum in Balboa Park, was painted with oil paint on canvas in the Northern Netherlands and combines various blooms in a single vase amidst a dull and shadowy room. The painting depicts flowers of various colors in the various stages of bloom and decay, representing the spectrum of life and death while butterflies and dragonflies hover on the petals, suggesting evolution and transformation.
Whereas earlier floral paintings focus on clear lines and symmetrical bouquets that rise to provide a clear view of the container, Ruysch fills then entire canvas with uneven collections that often expand off the canvas and rarely show much of the container at all. The asymmetrical arrangement places emphasis on certain flowers, such as the large white peony in the center and the sunflower below it, while other flowers such as the daffodil and daisies are smaller and some even face away from the viewer. Though asymmetrical, the painting is balanced by creating a diagonal with flora reaching up to the top left hand corner and the architecture of the room extending down to the bottom right side of the canvas. The lightly painted colonnades in the top right of the painting create another balanced diagonal with the blank space in the bottom left of the canvas. The irregular display realistically parallels the natural decay of flowers, depicting the flowers in various stages of aging such as a living bouquet might wilt.

Ruysch uses chiaroscuro to contrast the light blooms with the dark room similar many to late Baroque and Rococo style paintings, accentuating the flowers while deemphasizing the space that frames them. Chiaroscuro of the complex composition manipulates the contrast of light and dark to give an illusion of depth and to create volume in a painting. Ruysch also employs the uses one point perspective to create depth in the painting. The large scale bouquet commands the majority of space in the work, though in the dull background the architecture fades, creating depth.
According to Pearson (755), still life paintings carry “moralizing connotations, reminding viewers of the transience of life and material possessions”. The work is filled with symbolism of the natural world: the flowering blooms each represent a different quality of the human experience that people hope to attain whereas the winged insects might symbolize the souls of humans themselves. Stems and vines entwine and interlace through the complex bouquet, symbolizing a connection to our origins while the vibrant blooms represent enlightenment and realization of certain emotions and values. A bright, white Peony directs the viewer to the center of the canvas: as an archetypical symbol of feminine beauty and purity, the flower alone suggests romance while the dragonfly resting on the large petals might signify adaptability and self-realization. Alone, the peony and dragonfly might imply romantic perception, though the other flowers enhance the symbolic meaning of the work as a whole and suggest romantic wisdom as only one aspect of the soul. As symbols of longevity and happiness, the large sunflower beneath the peony hints at another aspect of the human experience. Other flowers such as daffodils (for rebirth and new beginnings) and daisies (for simplicity and modesty) imply other characteristics of the human condition. Larger blooms suggest an emphasized importance of the symbolic quality in life while smaller or wilting flowers imply that the symbolic quality has less significance. For example, while romance implied by the large peony dominates ones mortal soul, purity and innocence represented by smaller daisies might take a smaller role in life in comparison to love.

In comparison to the “sensitive free-form arrangements and unusual and beautiful color harmonies” (Pearson, 756) in Ruysch’s later “Flower Still Life” (1700), “A Vase of Flowers” is an earlier example of Ruysch attention to detail and skilled illustration of floral anatomy. The two works share asymmetrical arrangements which rise in a diagonal across the canvas and are offset by diagonal tabletops. In both works highlighted blossoms and leaves are balanced against the shadowed backgrounds, calling attention to the flowers rather than the spaces where they are located. In both paintings long, curving stems and casually placed insects enliven the composition and create counterbalance to the large, bright blooms that dominate the painting. Ruysch’s style is clearly captured in both paintings, exemplifying her interest in botany while focusing on the significance of the human soul in relation to the natural world.

Focusing on elaborately decorated floral arrangements Ruysch’s “A Vase Of Flowers” (1689) combines an assortment of highlighted blooms amidst a dim room obscured by a lack of light. The painting depicts flowers of various colors in the various stages of bloom and decay, representing the spectrum of life and death while butterflies and dragonflies hover on the petals, signifying development and transformation of the human soul via the idealistic qualities of faith, romance, and purity. As a representation human exploration into oneself, the painting illustrates the universal discovery of life while gently suggesting the inevitability of death and decay though the depiction of new blooms and old blooms.

[Margie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was reminded of this charming little book by a great review written by my Goodreads' friend, Lisa. She brought up many interesting points about the meanings of the flowers in this book.

I picked up this delightful little copy while visiting the Huntington Gardens earlier this year. I am reminded of that lovely day when I look through it.

My copy is a bit small, only 5 and 3/4 inches long by 4 inches wide, and thus a bit hard to read. Someday I will get a larger copy. However, small though it is, it is such a beautiful book. Who can resist the charming illustrations of Kate Greenaway. This book is filled with beautiful children, women and girls in old-fashioned dress, reading, walking, contemplating, crying, comforting, talking and dancing - each page a delight. Beautiful flowers decorate almost every page and there are many classic poems about flowers at the end of the book, including my favorite, "Daffodils" by Wordsworth.

In addition to the extensive list of flowers and their "meanings" throughout the main part of the book, there is also a reverse list of the meanings and the flowers they pertain to in the back of the book. You might find yourself surprised or disappointed in the unusual meanings of some of the flowers. They aren't all what you might want for your favorite flower!

[Ana Martín · Rating 3 out of 5]

“Las flores tiene un lenguaje propio que es toda una tradición (…), la riqueza de la naturaleza permitía diálogos llenos de afecto. Cualquier flor transmitía un mensaje”

🌹🌸🌷💐🌺🌻📖📚 🌹🌸🌷💐🌺🌻📖📚 🌹🌸

Opinión:

Realmente en este libro no hay mucho que reseñar, ya que es casi un panfleto pequeño con los significados literales que tenían las flores en la época Victoriana. Es bastante informativo si es algo que te llame la atención, pero si no es una lectura que vas a encontrar tediosa porque te colocan alfabéticamente los nombres de las flores y sus significados en acciones o sentimientos.
Como yo ahorita ando en este mood informativo 🤓☝️, lo aprecié bastante; pero sí recalco que no es una lectura para todos.

Calificación 3📖/5📖

[Karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really this is just a reference book on floriography. Lists all the flowers and their meaning. I had no idea the extent of the "language of flowers". You really didn't have to talk to anyone...you could just send the flower that said what you wanted to convey. Now I'm all interested in this topic and have ordered more books on the subject. Floriography has been used for thousands of years but became really popular in England and the U.S. in the 19th century. What does your favorite flower mean? A couple of mine- nasturtium: patriotism; lemon blossoms: fidelity in love; hollyhock: ambition; peony: shame; basil: hatred.

[Edith Campo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Encontré este libro en las cajas del garaje y me pareció un buen complemento al "Herbarium" de Irina Hirondelle que me regalaron en navidad. Es un diccionario de plantas y su significado cuando se utilizaba como forma de comunicación oculta. Es curioso descubrir que no solo se las entregaban pretendientes, sino que muchas obras artísticas se completan con flores para potenciar un significado.

[Lailatun Nadhirah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Buku panduan ni sangat sesuai bagi pereka grafik bahagian illustrasi. Adakala sesetengah ilustrasi perlu ada satu simbolik bagi mengukuhkan ilustrasi tersebut, termasuklah simbolik bunga yang rata-ratanya memiliki perwatakan dan maksudnya tersendiri sepertimana maksud bunga Red Spider Lily dalam manga dan anime.

Serius sangat membantu, berselang-seli dengan ilustrasi lukisan yang comel.

[Amanda Payne · Rating 4 out of 5]

This basically a dictionary of the language of flowers and their victorian meanings - with the incomparable illustrations Kate Greenaway! I can see this being a useful reference when reading literature from that time, as well as if you’re just interested in the meaning of flowers. I enjoyed it!

[Ruby · Rating 3 out of 5]

Beautiful illustrations in this little 1884 gem!
Defining flowers for subtle communication.

The Lily & The Rose, pg. 76

" The Rose soon redden’d into rage,
And, swelling with disdain,
Appeal’d to many a poet’s page
To prove her right to reign. "

Fun little read...

[Peinumenchu · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ok, but could be better

It would have been more interesting to have pictures of the flowers mentioned and to start with a little introduction in to how flowers came to be associated with particular features or characteristics.

[Lora Mitchell · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautiful Victorian book, Illustrated by Kate Greenaway, one of the first female illustrators in England. Contains Victorian meanings of various flowers & poems about flowers by British poets. You can download this on the Internet Archive & project Gutenberg for free.