Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1846, BY THOMAS DREW, JR.

In the Clerk's office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts.

INTRODUCTION.

FLOWERS are love's truest language! they betray, Like the divining rods of magi old,

Where priceless wealth lies buried, not of gold, But love, strong love, that never can decay! I send thee flowers, O dearest! and I deem

That from their petals, thou wilt hear sweet words, Whose music, clearer than the voice of birds, When breathed to thee alone, perchance may seem, All eloquent of feelings unexpressed.

O, wreathe them in those tresses of dark hair!
Let them repose upon thy forehead fair,
And on thy bosom's yielding snow be pressed!
Thus shall thy fondness for my flowers reveal,
The love that maiden coyness would conceal.
Park Benjamin.

PREFACE.

"In eastern lands they talk in flowers,
And tell in a garland their loves and cares."

THE love of flowers is inherent in the human soul. The infant stretches forth its tiny hand to clasp them, and the man of crime is softened by the lessons which they teach. They are mute but impressive preachers to the human heart, and the silent influence of their fragrant breath mingles with and etherializes the roughest

natures.

"Flowers are God's thoughts," saith the poet, and the pure soul reads best these thoughts, and discovers their holy meaning. They are the diviners of all good, and from the mystic Abyssinian tree, whose fragrant blossoms bend lov