All the letters I can write — Letter-Leaf

Dickinson admired the characters written by the nature, the letter-leaf, and sent the leaf to her lover as her letter.

All the letters I can write ¹
Are not fair as this－
Syllables of Velvet－
Sentences of Plush,
Depths of Ruby, undrained, ⁵
Hid, Lip, for Thee－
Play it were a Humming Bird－
And just sipped－me－

(F.380/J.334)

[1] letters:: a hint of the plant letter-leaf.
[2] this:: this letter-leaf, Grammatophyllum, an orchid with stains on its flowers like letters.
[3, 4] Velvet, Plush:: surface of the orchid.
[5] Ruby:: color of the orchid.
[6] Thee:: her lover, who she sent a letter-leaf as her love letter.
[7, 8] Humming Bird, sipped me:: the hummingbird sipped the orchid, as her lover sipped her.

Many-flowered Letter-leaf. The plant has very much the aspect of a gigantic Cymbidium, with long coriaceous leaves, distichous at the base, and in fact there is not much to separate Grammatophyllum from that genus; . . . It was hoped, when this plant was imported, that it would prove the famous Letter-plant of Amboyna, Java, and the neighbouring coast, so called because its flowers are marked with deep brown stains arranged upon a pale ground so as to resemble grotesque characters. ─ Edwards's Botanical Register (1839)

Grammatophyllum . . . The flowers themselves are as big as a Narcissus, composed of 5 outer petals, narrow at the bottom, broader at the top, some yellow, others greenish-yellow and inscribed with large spots and characters like Hebrew letters, but not distinct; they are reddish-brown, and different in different flowers. In the middle is a rolled up petal resembling a goblet, of a paler colour, streaked with brown or purple lines. ─ Paxton's Flower Garden (1852)