Floriography, or the language of flowers originates from the Victorian era .. when a message could be sent with flowers when it was perhaps... not prudent to speak the words aloud. To this point words, meanings or attributes were associated with various flowers.. many of which we carry over into our contemporary vernacular. Shakespeare was renowned for ascribing emblematic meaning to flowers .. in particular in his play Hamlet. Floral dictionaries were published with various 'definitions' of the meaning of flowers. 'The Floral Offering' - The Language and Poetry of Flowers by Henrietta Dumont was published in1853 was full of floral 'decoding'.
This 300 page edition is full of floriography and poetry .. in the authors words "We present it to our readers in the humble hope that we shall increase the means of elegant and innocent enjoyment by our 'Floral Offering'. Some examples of definitions include :
Amaranth - immortality
Anemone - foresaken
Myrtle - love
Daisy - innocence
Grass - submission
Lavender - distrust
Pansy - think of me
Peony - anger
Sage - domestic virtue
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