236 WILD FLOWEUS OF 



the Eose most aptly designates the tender passion, 

 by its gradual advance from the bud to the full-blown 

 flower; and in its different stages was wont to be 

 mutually presented, and if favourably accepted, was 

 deemed the pledge of future felicity." It also aptly 

 symbolizes the young virgin cut off before arriving at 

 connubial happiness, and thus appears on the grave 

 of maiden purity. 



" It doth bequeath a charm to sweeten death." 



EVELYN mentions a churchyard in Surrey, that is 

 filled with rose-bushes.* CLEMEJSTCE ISATJRE, a lady 

 of Toulouse, who lived in the fifteenth century, and 

 who had often presided at the celebrated Eloral Games 

 of that ancient city, presented the citizens with mag- 

 nificent markets, erected at her own cost, on condition 

 that the games should be held in future within the 

 hall which formed part of her donation, and that Roses 

 should l)e strewed upon lier tomb. Her statue now 

 adorns the Hall of the Academy of Eloral Games in 

 Toulouse, and is annually crowned with brilliant 

 flowers. 



The Eose only appears in its perfection of beauty 

 when Summer has called forth all the glories of crea- 

 tion, and the leafy month of June presents its umbra- 

 geous woods sleeping in the fervid rays of noon. 

 Hence the Eose is connected with our most delightful 

 feelings, our earliest excursions, our long -desired 

 holidays, our tenderest recollections ; and hence 



* According to ancient authors, among the Greeks and Romans, their 

 tombs were often environed with roses, which, on certain occasions, were 

 garlanded about with their fragrant flowers by surviving friends and 

 relatives. Those in poorer circumstances had merely a stone with the 

 inscription " Sparge, precor, rosas super mea busta, Viator;" (Oh! 

 passenger, scatter roses, I beseech thee, upon my monument !) equiva- 

 lent to the " Orate pro anima" on the tombs of mediaeval times. 



