Floriography and Poetry
The language of flowers and poetry are intrinsically linked. Not only are meanings assigned to flowers in and of themselves poetic representations, but many of the books describing floriographic systems couch their expressions as poetic lines. As an example, H.G. Adams in his Oriental Textbook and Language of Flowers (1851) uses couplets or quatrains to express his meanings:
The Wild Thyme for activity,
The fav’rite of the busy bee;
The pungent seasoning that excites
Dull, epicurean appetites.
These descriptions flow in the same manner as the Romantic poetry of writers like Wordsworth, Shelly, and Byron. Indeed, Byron is often falsely credited as one source of the Turkish attribution story. But also like poets, the authors of floriography texts did not draw consistent inspirations from the same subjects; many different meanings have been ascribed to most flowers over time. Only a handful - lilies for innocence, chrysanthemums for fidelity, snapdragons for presumptuousness, as examples - have carried stable meanings through the years.