ROSE TRIBE l>51 



following item: — "For iij oz. of rose watere, for boylde meats and leaches 

 and gelleys and drie leches, and march payne, and to wash afore dinnere and 

 after dinnere, iijs. ixd." 



Every one accnstomed to gather our Wild Rose has seen those green 

 mossy tufts on its branches, which in autumn are tinged with crimson, and 

 which on being opened are found to contain small grubs. Country people 

 call them robin's cushions, though the robin has no more to do with them 

 than the toad with the toadstool. These excrescences are produced by the 

 puncture of an insect, the Cynips rosce, and the tufts themselves are known as 

 Bedeguars. They are very astringent, and have been much used as a styptic, 

 having been employed both externally and internally to check hamaorrhage. 



Caroline White, whose thoughts on flowers are always true to Nature, 

 has written for our volume this little poem on the Rose : — 



" bright imperial flower, 



Whether liy palace bower, 

 Or graceful wreathing round the poor man's cot ; 



Crowning young beauty's head, 



Or clasp'd by fingers dead, 

 Or marking out for Love one heap'd up spot ; 



" Thou hast a brighter store 



Of rich and varied lore, 

 Than unto earthly poet's page belongs ; 



Garner 'd in each sweet leaf, 



Are tales of joy and grief, 

 Jlocking the melody of written songs. 



" Love, to which words are weak. 



Thy blushing depths can speak, 

 And in the fond one's absence breathe liis sighs ; 



Yet as a trumpet's tone, 



In days for ever gone. 

 Thou didst awake grim faction's battle ciies ; 



" Now wreathing hall and bower, 



Now twined for minstrel's dower 

 Or happier still, the chaplet of a bride 



Now scenting rites divine. 



On some cathedral shrine, 

 Or floating votive upon Gunja's tide ; 



"Thine was the glowing wreath, 



The pure and perfumed breath, 

 That at the banquet of Imperial Rome, 



Temper'd the festive hour 



With a refining power. 

 And twined the wine-cup with a thought of home. 



"They cull'd thee for the breast 



Of beauty in her rest : — 

 The pulseless rest — that concheth in the tomb ; 



And deck'd her in its trance. 



As for some festive dance, 

 With gem-like tears and thy pale marble bloom, 



"Feast, triumph, bridal, bier, 



Joy's smiles, or Sorrow's tear. 

 Took radiance from thee, or a deeper woe ; 



Emblem of glowing Hope, 



Of Life's fair promise broke, 

 Of Mirth, of Love, of shatter'd sweets laid low." 



16. Glaucous Dog-rose {R. ccesia). — Prickles hooked ; leaflets doubly 



32—2 



