250 ROSACEA 



of the Provence Rose, are best when grown on a stock of the common Dog- 

 rose ; and the numerous China Roses, blooming almost all the year round, 

 and peeping into the cottage window, or climbing up to the eaves, often 

 tower above some of the Roses which are but varieties of our common 

 hedge species. 



All nations have prized the Rose. In ancient days even warriors wore 

 wreaths of its flowers, and the Greeks and Romans strewed its petals over 

 their dishes on festive occasions. When Cleopatra invited Antony to an 

 entertainment, the royal apartments were covered with roses to a consider- 

 able depth. The Greeks and Romans planted the shrub on their tombs, or 

 laid upon them its gathered flowers. Aubrey mentions the old custom exist- 

 ing at Ockley, in Surrey, of planting Roses in churchyards over the remains 

 of those who were betrothed, which Avas probal)ly the relic of a Roman 

 custom. But all old poets, and historians of all places, extol the flower, 

 from the " Romaunt of the Rose," by our own Chaucer, or the " Ghulistan, 

 the Region of Roses" of the East, or that Persian metaphysical poem 

 mentioned by D'Herbelot, " The Rose-bush," down to the writers of to- 

 day. In Eastern lands the rose is prized above all floAvers, and forms 

 a contiinial source of allusion in Oriental writings. Various ti'aditions of 

 Scriptural personages, as well as those of their mythology, are connected 

 with uses of the Rose ; and many a poet of those sunny climes expresses 

 the fancy which Jami records: — "You may place a hundred handfuls of 

 fragi^ant herbs and flowers before the nightingale, yet he wishes not in his 

 constant heart for more than the sweet breath of his beloved Rose." But we 

 have wandered long from the wilding Rose of our woods and hedges, which 

 is sometimes planted for its succulent hips. Their profusion on the trees 

 was believed, as Lord Bacon tells us, to predict a severe winter, and modern 

 rustics yet think so : — 



" The thorus and briai's, vennilion-hue, 

 Now lull of hips and haws are seen, 

 It' village prophecies be true 

 Tiiey prove that winter will be keen." 



These are bright red, and have a pleasant acid flavour, which the pulp pre- 

 serves when dried ; and children eat them notwithstanding the silky bristly 

 covering of the seeds, which has been known in some cases to cause painful 

 irritation of the throat. The pulp of these fruits, beaten up Avith sugar, 

 makes the conserve of hips sold by druggists, and a good pectoral medicine 

 is derived from them. In former times, preparations made both from the 

 fruits and petals were supposed to strengthen the heart and memory. 

 Parkinson mentions among " the Physicale vertues " of this and other Roses, 

 that the conserve is useful in " cooling heate of the eyes," and we have seen it 

 most eftectual for this purpose : this old writer also adds, " Divers doe make 

 an excellent yellowe colour of the juyce of white roses, wherein some allome 

 is dissolved, to paint or colour flowers, or pictures, or any such things." 

 Gerarcle tells of the " pleasant meates and banketting dishes " made of these 

 fruits beaten up with sugar. Rose-water also was apparently used by our 

 ancestors on some occasions ; for in the charges in the account of a dinner of 

 Lord Leiyster, Chancellor of the University of Oxford, in 1570, we have the 



