This was a lovely birthday gift. It’s a keeper. I love that it’s now on my bookshelves.

This is a book whose whole I loved its better than the sum of its parts.

I appreciate that this reprint is unabridged and contains the entire 1884 book. In addition to the lists of flowers and their meanings, there are poems (by well-known poets) about flowers, and there are lovely illustrations. Different editions of the newly reprinted book have different cover illustrations; I don’t know which, if any, is the original.

I like how there are alphabetical lists of the flowers and also another alphabetical list of the meanings. It was easy to look up and find both the flowers and the meanings really easily.

I would love to have learned HOW and WHY the flowers’ meanings were chosen. This book has nothing about that.

What I don’t like about this language of flowers is how many of my favorite flowers have horrible meanings. I don’t personally believe in their meanings but some people might and back in 1800s England I assume many people did so I do wonder if flowers were given/used on the basis of their meanings and not how much they were admired & loved or how beautiful they were or how pleasing their aroma. Some of the meanings are as I would have guessed: love, inspiration, hope, compassion, joy, levity, beauty, youthful love, friendship, and many others. Some are maybe appropriate for funeral flowers: Alas! for my poor heart, calm repose, consolation, sorrow, mourning, my regrets follow you to the grave, widowhood, sympathy, for instance. Many others are truly awful: indifference, coldheartedness, aversion, disgust, deceit, horror, haughtiness, meanness, malevolence, misanthropy, rudeness, revenge, war, and many more. For me it seems odd to label flowers with such negative meanings, unless they’re poisonous and then I could see it making sense.

The meanings are for flowers and also include trees, shrubs, grasses, tendrils of climbing plants, etc.

I was disappointed that one of my favorite flowers wasn’t there but perhaps they weren’t around yet when the book was first published in 1884 or most likely they just weren’t grown/found/known about in England/the British Isles. It’s the California poppy, which is usually a lovely orange, and rarely yellow or cream; I like the orange ones. There are meanings for other colors of poppies but not orange ones.

I like the idea of the “language of flowers” (that I think I first learned about when I read The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh) more than I actually like its execution. This will still be a great book to occasionally take of the shelf and view, either to look up a particular flower or meaning or to just enjoy a poem, a picture, or just the lovely presentation.

I’m struggling to read and this was the perfect book to pick up to read for a bit. I did read it cover to cover but just a few pages at a time so it did take me a long time to read. It doesn’t have to be read cover to cover to enjoy it and I assume many readers will just casually peruse the pages and it’s a fine book to read that way too.

3-1/2 stars ( )

在[b:終將成為妳|36197155|終將成為妳（１）|Nio Nakatani|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1504795262l/36197155._SX50_.jpg|48857909]的動畫看到一半
突然對花語感到有點興趣

考慮到現在流傳的花語印象中都是一花多義
便從谷騰堡計畫中挖出了這本在眾人玩太多次超級比一比之前的19世紀的書籍

本書先以表列花卉對應的花語(僅少部分有二種以上的花語)
再表列花語對應的花卉
理論上是還蠻實用的書籍

只是我看了花卉的實物或照片也叫不出名字
知道了中文名也不知道英文名
知道了其中一個英文名也不知道本書用的是哪一個英文俗稱

Amethyst不是紫水晶嗎 Bachelor's Buttons又是什麼
能好好利用本書的人可能不多吧

8422682028

I really like this one, both for the silly etiquette and for the occasionally truly bizarre meanings. ( )

This is a beautiful read on flowers and what they convey! Exotic and replete with nuances of poetry. Delightful stroll in the world of flowers. ( )