The Language of Flowers: An Index of Flowers and Their Meanings

Below is just a sampling of what a 19^th century index of flowers and their meanings would contain, but it is enough to get you started on learning the meanings of some common flowers.

Many floral dictionaries were published in the United States in the late 18^th and early 19^th centuries. Some were simple indexes. Others were adorned with beautiful images of flowers and supplemented with literary extracts ranging from the works of Milton and Shakespeare to popular verse.

Emily Dickinson’s source for the language of flowers was more scholarly. She owned Almira H. Lincoln Phelps’s Familiar Lectures on Botany: Explaining the Structure, Classification, and Uses of Plants, with a Flora for Practical Botanists. This book contains a section titled “Symbolical Language of Flowers,” in which Phelps explains that “besides the scientific relations which are to be observed in plants, flowers may also be regarded as emblematical of the affections of the heart and qualities of the intellect.”

Phelps regarded her list of flower meanings as a starting point. She recommended that her readers compile lists based on their own sentiments and associations. As you read through Phelps’s list, you will find that she had a lively and colorful imagination.

The Meanings of Flowers

From Familiar Lectures on Botany: Explaining the Structure, Classification, and Uses of Plants, with a Flora for Practical Botanists, by Mrs. Almira H. Lincoln Phelps (New York, 1852). Plant names have been updated.