The Floral Kingdom - Its History, Sentiment and Poetry A Dictionary of More Than Three Hundred Plants, with the Genera and Families to Which They Belong, And the Language of each Illustrated with Appropriate Gems of Poetry And A Practical Treatise for Amateurs On the Cultivation and Analysis of Plants By Mrs. Cordelia Harris Turner, Published 1877, 668 pages - Bonus Book – Floral Poetry and the Language of Flowers By Marcus Ward & Co.Published 1877, 264 pages, color illustrations Requires Adobe Reader 5.0 or higher to View (or MAC Preview Ver. 3) $8.46 sale this week (reg $9.95) + $1.99 shipping and handling http://cgi.ebay.com/The-Floral-Kingdom_W0QQitemZ130367123763QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item1e5a7c7133 “The love of flowers having become so nearly universal, it seems almost superfluous for an author to attempt any explanation in placing a work at all pertaining to the subject before the public, as every work, either elaborate or simple, must awaken a response in some heart where nature has placed her shrine. To those endowed with keen perceptions, the magnifi- cent, intricate and wonderful handiwork of the All-wise is daily manifested, and always new, in the infinite variety of the floral world. “A number of years ago, the writer, being interested in the mythological legends of the Greeks and Romans, was frequently struck with the number of fabled gods and goddesses, and the various rural nymphs who attended them, that were transformed into a tree, shrub or flower, either to mitigate some sorrow, gratify revenge, or as a punishment for some breach of the laws supposed to govern the deities of that time. “Having made numerous memoranda of such legends, the love of flowers was sufficient to interest one in the general history of plants, their nativity, uses, the chief events in the history of each species, its cultivation and introduction into America. The "Floral Kingdom" is the mature outgrowth of such notes. In order to make the book pleasing to the general reader, it has been the endeavor to exclude all technical terms pertaining to the science of botany, except the mere classification of plants into families to show the relation of one plant to another.