[Illustration: The Passion-flower of the Jesuits. From _Parkinson’s Paradisus_.] In early times, it was customary in Europe to employ particular colours for the purpose of indicating ideas and feelings, and in France where the symbolical meaning of colours was formed into a regular system, much importance was attached to the art of symbolising by the selection of particular colours for dresses, ornaments, &c. In this way, flowers of various hues became the apt media of conveying ideas and feelings; and in the ages of chivalry the enamoured knight often indicated his passion by wearing a single blossom or posy of many-hued flowers. In the romance of _Perceforet_, a hat adorned with Roses is celebrated as a favourite gift of love; and in _Amadis de Gaule_, the captive Oriana is represented as throwing to her lover a Rose wet with tears, as the sweetest pledge of her unalterable faith. Red was recognised as the colour of love, and therefore the Rose, on account of its tint, was a favourite emblem. Of the various allegorical meanings which were in the Middle Ages attached to this lovely flower, a description will be found in the celebrated _Romaunt de la Rose_, which was commenced in the year 1620 by Guillaume de Lorris, and finished forty years later by Jean de Meung. In France, during the Middle Ages, flowers were much employed as emblems of love and friendship. At the banquet given in celebration of the marriage of Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, with the English Princess, Margaret, several ingenious automata were introduced, one being a large unicorn, bearing on its back a leopard, which held in one claw the standard of England, and on the other a Daisy, or _Marguerite_. The unicorn having gone round all the tables, halted before the Duke; and one of the _maîtres d’hôtel_, taking the Daisy from the leopard’s claw, presented it, with a complimentary address, to the royal bridegroom.