230 WILD FLOWERS OF 



scarcely then be avoided, with the name upon our 

 lips and the bright perfumed flower in our view. 

 Summer has her lap now full of garlands, and we may 

 say with Persius 



" Quidquid calcaveral hie, rosa fiat ! " 

 So let poetical roses ornament our present path. 



In an odour-breathing little volume entitled " Me- 

 moirs of the Hose" it is observed " The Hose, you 

 are aware, is not only the flower of love and the 

 emblem of beauty, but is also considered the symbol 

 of secresy. A kiss is often taken and allowed ' under 

 the Hose'* A belief that two young companions 

 have become lovers is a suspicion whispered ' under 

 the Hose.' The certainty of arrangements for an 

 intended marriage often transpires ' wider tlie 

 Hose;'' and whenever I greet the full-blown impres- 

 sion of your exquisitely engraven seal, with its 

 appropriate motto ' Sub-Eosa,' I always anticipate 

 beneath it, if not a poetical kiss or a lover's secret, 

 yet expressions of kindness and feelings of friendship, 

 which are sacred and inviolate." 



As to the origin of this secresy, " under the Rose," 

 mythological legend states that Cupid> on some occa- 

 sion, bribed Harpocrates to silence by the present of 

 a Eose (a golden effigy of one it is to be presumed) ; 

 and hence, at banquets, it was formerly the custom to 

 suspend a Eose over the table, as a hint that things 

 might transpire over the convivial board not to be 

 repeated elsewhere. The Eose was always considered 

 a mystical emblem of the Catholic Church, probably 



* None but a cynic, forgetful of life's early flowers, can object to this, 

 and it forms the undisputed privilege of a " Botanical Looker-out," who, 

 \yith his red Rose at Midsummer, and Mistletoe at Christmas, may be 

 fairly engaged at all seasons. 



