emblem

A flyting response to one of the following floral emblem sub-themes.

1.

The First Principle

The first principle is to observe that the 
pronoun /, or me, is expressed by inclining
 the flower to the left, and the pronoun thou,
 or thee, by sloping it to the right, but when
 represented by drawings on paper, these po
sitions should be reversed, as the flower should 
lean to the heart of the person whom it is to
 signify.

Advice:  The articles a, an, and the may be ex
pressed by a tendril, the first by a single line,
 the second by a double tendril, the third by one with
 three branches.

2.

The Second Rule

The second rule is, that if a flower presented
 upright expresses a particular sentiment, when
 reversed it has a contrary meaning. Thus,
 for example, a rose bud upright with its 
thorns and its leaves means, “I fear, but I 
hope;” if the same bud is returned held down
wards, it signifies, “you must neither hope
 nor fear;” but if the thorns be stripped off, 
it expresses, “there is every thing to hope;” 
deprived of its leaves, it signifies, “there is
 every thing to fear.” Thus the expression may be varied of almost all the flowers by changing 
their position.

Advice:  The flower of the marigold, 
for example, placed on the head, signifies
 “trouble of spirits;” on the heart, “trouble
 of love” on the bosom, “weariness.”

The pansy held upright denotes “hearts’ 
ease;” reversed it speaks the contrary; when 
presented upright it is understood to say, “think of me;” but when offered pendant, 
it means “forget me.” And thus the ama
ryllis, which is the emblem of pride, may be 
made to express “my pride is humbled,” or
 “your pride is checked,” by holding it
 downwards either to the left or the right, as 
the sense requires.

3.

In the Same Manner

In the same manner the wallflower, which
 is made the emblem of fidelity in misfortune,
 if presented with the stalk upwards, would 
insinuate that the person was considered no 
friend to the unfortunate.

4.

Numerical Emblems

The numerical emblems are simply distinguished by the leaflets as far as eleven. From 
eleven to twenty they are denoted by berries 
added to leaf ten, twenty to a hundred is represented by
 joining a compound leaf to the tenth, and
 the odd number is formed by the addition of 
berries.  A hundred is represented on the same 
principal by ten tens, and which may be 
increased by a third leaflet and a branch of
 berries as far as 999.  A 
thousand is distinguished by a frond of fern
or brake, to which a leaflet may be added to 
increase the number of thousands, in the 
same manner as the hundreds.