488 BURMA, ITS PEOPLE AXD PRODUCTIOXS. 



HOSACIEJE. 

 Cahjx without hradlefs. Petals usualli/ 5. Ciirpels many, \-ovuIed. Achencs 

 dry, inclosed in the fleshy calyx-tube. 



EosA, Zinnaus. 

 Slirubs, often prickly, with unpaired pinnate leaves and sliowy flowers. 



Styles all free. 

 * Calyx-throat pervious and not closed by the disk. 

 *E. Indica. 



Flowers large, usually corymbose. Calyx glabrous or sparingly glandular. 

 Leaflets glabrous, glaucous beneath. Carpels about 40 to 50. 



*E. DAMASCENA. 



As preceding, but leaves solitary. Carpels about 1.5. 



R. MICEOPHrLLA. 



Leaflets small. Flowers solitary. Caly.'i-tube and the globular fruits densely 

 cchinate. 



* * Calyx-throat completely closed by the disk. 



E,. INVOLUCEATA, Eosb. Country North of iMandalay. 



Calyx, younger branohlets, and the globular fruits densely tomentose. Flowers 

 white. 



Several species of roses (especially Ji. Indica and R. damaseena) are found planted 

 around khyoungs chiefly, in almost evei-y one of the larger villages of Pegu (Kurz). 



There is perhaps no flower more universally esteemed for its fragrance than the 

 Eose, and this feeling seems to have been coeval with the cultivation of the flower. 

 Some indication of this is, I think, afforded by the use of .such an epithet as ' rosy- 

 fingered,' applied by Homer to the Dawn, for the Eose is by no means the only 

 flower which might claim, from its mere colour, to be introduced in a descriptive 

 epithet, but no sooner is the mind turned to the contemplation of a red flower than 

 the Eose, from the unchallenged perfection of its scent, fills the mii'ior of our 

 thoughts, and is unconsciously adopted as a type for the colour it most commonly 

 displays. And with regard to this point, it must be remembered that it is the old- 

 fashioned roses, such as our ' cabbage-rose,' which at once display the perfection of 

 scent united with a typical rosy colour, the former quality being wofully deficient 

 in many roses now in vogue, displaying yellow tints rather than rosy ones. The 

 Attar of Eoses, or the essential oil of the flowers, is one of the most delicious perfumes 

 known, and the dearest, and one extremely difiicult to procure free from adulteration, 

 which is not surprising when we remember that it has been said that it requires 

 100,000 flowers to furnish 180 grains or 1 rupee's -n eight of oil. The old poetic 

 fancy of the birth of the Eose from the life-blood of Adonis is too pretty to be 

 passed over : — 



** *A£ Hi Tav Ki'Ocpeiai', uTrioXeTO icaXo^ *Aca^in<i. 

 AaKpi'ov a Tla(pia joaaov \efi, oaaov Afuwo 

 A//ta X^^'' '"^'^^ Trai'Ta irori ^^ovn "/r/i'eTai arOij. 

 Aififia poBov TiKT6(, ra ce iaKpva tuv uvitiwi'av.' 



liion Idyl. I. 1. 62.' 



ft Carpels distinct, on a conspicuoas torus, when ripe form iny a superior compound 

 dry or sajjpy fruit. 



' Woe ! Woe ! for love's own Queen, since stretclicd in death 

 Adonis lies, the beautiful, whose blood 

 Poured forth, like water on the thirsty earth 

 Is matched by tears from Aphrodite's eyes. 

 Where fell those tears, Anemones upspring 

 And where each ruddy di'op, Lo ! blooms a Rose. 



