Abstract. The language of flowers is a system of symbols (flowers) one can use to express various feelings, e. g., those of friendship, gratitude, love etc. As a cultural phenomenon, the language of flowers is complex. It has many sources, both European and Eastern ones. Around the turn of the XVIIIth century the language of flowers was an acknowledged fact of the Russian culture. Dmitrij Oznobishin, a poet and a translator from many languages, published a book, titled “The Selam, or The Language of Flowers” (1830). Though the book seems to be Eastern in character, and one of the epigraphs is taken from an Arabian book, the dictionary of the language of flowers has no relation to the Arabian literature. It is based on the German original “Die Blumensprache”. As the original refers to the German culture, the translator had to introduce the realia of the Russian culture instead.