Blair Collection > Celtic magazine > Volume 5

206 THE CELTIC MAGAZINE.
FLO WEB LORE: THE TEAGHINOS OF FLOWERS, HISTORICAL, LE-
GENDARY, POETICAL, AND SYMBOLICAL. Belfast: M'Oaw, Stbvxk- ' •.
BON, & Orb.
We cannot conceive any feasible reason why this book should have ' i
been published anonymously, for beyond question it is in its every , i
aspect a piece of work that all concerned have the utmost reason to be ,
proud of. To speak of it even as it appears to the eye of sense, the work , (
is the very perfection of the compositor, the engraver, and the binder's ■ !
art. The typography is antique, and ornate to a high degree. There are I -
red and black letter titles alternately at the head of the pages, and large > i
red letters at the commencement of each division, each new chapter being I i
surmounted by admirably executed, quaint, old-fashioned-looking garden, : {
rural, floral, and fairy scenes, all evidently prepared specially for this ; \
work. The illustrations proper of the work, on the other hand, consist of I :
very superior representations of a large number of the principal flowers, \ i
shrubs, and trees, which come in for tender and tasteful dealing at the i \
hands of the author. !
In referring to the author's handiwork, we have to continue the same j t
stylo of unqualified praise as in dealing with the other departments of the | (
work. Perhaps the reader will save us the trouble of detailed criticism by i I
anticipating what the merits of tlie work should be, when we mention ! ;
what ought to be no secret, that the author is Mrs Paterson, daughter of |
the late lamented Dr Carruthers, editor of the Inverness Courier, and i 3
when we further observe that the book before us fui'nishes ample evidence i >
that the succession to the accomplished father's rich and extensive herit- j {
age of culture, taste, and information, has not conformed to the salic law | j
by contLning itself to " heirs male of the body." i |
The work consists of nine divisions or chapters, each treating of
flowers, trees, and plants, whether as objects of use, ornament, religious ';
emblem, or heraldic badge ; the nature and habits of plants, and, in fact, j
almost every conceivable purpose to which they have been devoted by |
the necessities or the fancies of man. Monkish legend, the store-houses |
of story, and the rich treasuries of poetry in every time and clime, have ;
been put under tribute to complete the vast accumulation of "flower {
lore " which the gifted author has brought together, and all selected with I
the most admirable discrimination and taste. Nor is the tender and |
loving admiration of the subject which is necessary in a work of this kind
to be met with merely in the numerous extracts from aU the sources
placed under contribution, but the author herself, if not in point of fact,
a poet, is possessed of a very large share of the constituents from which
poets are made, one of them being a large and loving admiration of the
works of nature, with a sympathetic appreciation of all that is beautiful and
elevating and good in the world around.
This work is certainly composed in the " language of flowers," not in
the ordinary and arbitrary acceptation of that phrase ; it is a faithful in-
terpreter of the speech of the " tongues in trees " spoken of by the poet,
as well as of the utterances of the " heart," which the fancy of the ancients
put " in every stirring leaf."
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