292 THE YEAR-BOOK OF AGRICULTURE. 



she gave to Antony, had them laid two cubits thick on the floor of the banquet-room, and 

 then caused nets to be spread over the flowers in order to render the footing elastic. Helio- 

 gabalus caused not only the banquet-rooms, but also the colonnades that led to them, to be 

 covered with roses, interspersed with lilies, violets, hyacinths, and narcissi, and walked 

 about upon this flowery platform. 



As i source of artificial perfumes, the rose was employed by the ancients in other ways 

 than in those oils and waters that are familiar to modern life. When the leave- had been 

 pressed out for higher uses, they were dried and reduced into a powder, called " diapatma," 

 which wa- laid on the skin after a bath, and then washed off with cold water. The object 

 of this process was to impart a fragrance to the skin. As a medicine, quinces preserved in 

 honey were introduced into a decoction of rose-leaves, and the preparation was deemed good 

 for complaints of the stomach. In the culinary art, roses had likewise their place of honor, 

 and were put into many dishes for the sake of their pleasant flavor. For this end they were 

 sometimes preserved — a delicate process, as they were very apt to become mouldy. 



But the connection between the rose and the kitchen takes its most imposing form in the 

 rose-pudding, for which we give Herr Wustemann's receipt, based upon the authority of 

 Apicius: 



Take cleaned rose-leaves, carefully cut off the white part at the lower extremity, put 

 them into a mortar, and pound them, continually sprinkling them meanwhile with a " sauce 

 piquante." Afterwards, add about a glass and a half of the same sauce, and pass the 

 whole through a sieve. Next, take the brains from five calves' heads, remove the skin, ana 

 sprinkle over them a drachm of fine pepper. Beat all this in a mortar, still pouring in the 

 sauce as before. Then take the yolks of eight eggs, stir them up with a glass and a half of 

 wine and a glass of sack, and add a little oil. Lastly, anoint the form, into whioh the 

 whole is put, with oil, and so bake it that it may be equally heated at the top and at the 

 bottom. The pudding is then served up hot. 



Influence of Poetry on the Cultivation and Appreciation of Flowers. 



"Every one," says Ruskin, " who is about to lay out a limited extent of garden, in which 

 he wishes to introduce many flowers, should read and attentively study, first Shelley, anil 

 next Bhakspeare. The latter, indeed, induces the nm-t lieautiful connections between thought 

 and flower that can be found in the whole range of European literature; but he vary often 

 uses the symbolical effect of the flower, which it can only have in the educated mind, instead 

 of the natural and true effect of the flower, which it must have more or less upon c 



mind. Thus, when Ophelia, presenting her wild flowers, says, 'There's rosemary, that's for 

 remembrance, pray you, love, remember; and there's pansies, that's for thoughts' — the infi- 

 nite beauty of the passage depends upon the arbitrary meaning attached to the flowers. But 



when Shelley speaks of 



•Th.' lily Of Hi., vale, 

 ■\\ bom yutli IiiiK. s 10 fair, and DMfiOD so pale, 



That tin- light of bar trenraloiu belli li nan 

 Through tieir ]>h\ tlloni of tender green' — 



he is etherealizing an ImpreasiOD which the mind naturally receives from the flower. ( 'otise- 



quently, u it li only by their natural influence thai Bowers can address the mind through 

 the eye, we must read Shellej to loam how to use Sowers, and Bhakspeare to love them. In 



both writer- we find the wild flower possessing soul as well as life, and mingling it- influence 

 most Ultimately, like an untaught melody, with the deepest and most secret streams of human 

 emotion." 



New Roses. 



Mi c. <;. WiXKnrsoir, of Ealing, England, fund-he- to the Borticulturalisl the following 

 memoranda -' the recent new varieties Introduced into England: — 

 For the last season or two there has ' n no paucity of aorelties among roses, many of 



which may fairly claim, not only distinctness of color, but decided improvement in form. Of 



