"A book upon whose leaves some chosen plants,
By his own hand disposed with nicest care,
In undecaying beauty were preserved;
Mute register, to him, of time and place,
And various fluctuations in the breast;
To her, a monument of faithful love."

Wordsworth.

BOSTON:

A. TOMPKINS AND B. B. MUSSEY.

1845.

Kc 1960 3 HAVARD

Кс

COLLEGE

Dec 27,1934

LIBRARY

Henry F. Harrington

Entered according to act of Congress, in the year 1844, BY ABEL TOMPKINS,

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of Massachusetts.

Stereotyped by
GEORGE A. CURTIS.
New England Type and Stereotype Foundry.

INSCRIPTION.

To her whose "FLORA" first suggested this work, and who has fulfilled the mission of Love in joy and in sorrow, this little volume is affection

ately inscribed, with the prayer that mutual sympathy may ever lighten earth's unavoidable trials and sorrows, till the golden circlet, with all its jewels, shall be complete in Heaven.

INTRODUCTION.

THE name of "Flora" has been given to little volumes in which culled flowers have been pressed, as memorials of persons, times, and scenes, connected with incidents in the life of the owner of the book; and sentiments, corresponding with the poetic language of the flowers, are recorded beneath or around them. The author of the little book here presented to the reader, has selected the name of

Sacred Flora," because the sentiments he wished to express, springing as they did around the grave of a precious child, seemed to him well symbolized by such memorial flowers as those to which allusion has been made; and he trusts, that thus gathered, they will be found truly the flowers of Christian thought and sentiment. In preparing a memorial of an angel spirit, whose life on earth was that of a spring-flower-sweetness and beauty, he would fain believe that he has done a work for other hearts as well as for his own. He would console the bereaved, and furnish preparatives against