The language of flowers: The floral offering ; A Token of Affection and Esteem ; Comprising the Language and Poetry of Flowers

About this book

Henrietta Dumont’s The Language of Flowers offers a systematic guide to the symbolic meanings that various blossoms have carried through centuries of poetry and everyday custom. The work opens with a sweeping meditation on why the Creator has strewn the earth with countless flowers, from snowdrops to magnolias, and how each plant “corresponds to actual emotions” and serves a “mission of love and mercy.” From this philosophical prelude Dumont moves into a detailed catalogue, assigning each flower a concise moral or sentiment, friendship for the acacia, grief for the aloe, hope for the snowdrop, followed by poetic excerpts that illustrate the assigned meaning. The volume concludes with sections titled “Dictionary of Flowers,” “Calendar of Flowers,” and “Dial of Flowers,” promising a comprehensive reference for anyone wishing to decode floral messages.

The text reads like a Victorian‑era naturalist’s handbook, blending scholarly enumeration with lyrical flourishes and frequent quotations from poets such as Shakespeare, Carew and Robinson. Its tone is earnest and instructional, yet softened by frequent poetic interludes that give the catalogue a literary texture. Readers who enjoy the intersection of botany, symbolism, and 19th‑century poetic sensibility, gardeners, historians of etiquette, or lovers of antiquarian reference works, will find Dumont’s meticulous yet romantic approach both informative and pleasantly evocative.

Opening lines

Why has the beneficent Creator scattered over the face of the earth such a profusion of beautiful flowers--flowers by the thousand and million, in every land--from the tiny snowdrop that gladdens the chill spring of the north, to the gorgeous magnolia that flaunts in the sultry regions of the tropics? Why is it that every landscape has its appropriate flowers, every nation its national flowers, every rural home its home flowers? Why do flowers enter and shed their perfume over every scene of life, from the cradle to the grave? Why are flowers made to utter all voices of joy and sorrow in all varying scenes, from the chaplet that adorns the bride to the votive wreath that blooms over the tomb? …

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