''The Language of Flowers"

[Tom Dalzell]

Without knowing the context, is it possible that Scully was simply
referring to the Victorian "language of flowers," in which each flower
represented a certain sentiment or emotion?  There were any number of
books and postcards in the era depicting the "language."  An article
from the Collier's Cyclopedia of Commerial and Social Information (1882)
on the language of flowers is reproduced at
http://www.apocalypse.org/pub/u/hilda/flang.html.

Tom Dalzell


>In a message dated 1/9/05 7:10:37 AM, RonButters writes:
>
>>I find the phrase "The Language of Flowers" used in Robert Scully's
>>American gay novel, A SCARLET PANSY (New York: William Farro, 1933; copyright date
>>1932). Does anyone know what this means? It appears to have something to do
>>with a signalling system used by gay men to signal their sexual availablity
>>and/or preferences. The novel is supposedly set in the period c1880-1915, but it seems to have
>>been written in the 1930s.
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