CHAPTER XVII 



FLOWER LEGENDS OF '"' SAINTLY FAME " 



" The Lord God planted a garden 



In the first white days of the world; 

 And set there an angel warden. 

 In garments of light unfurled. 



" So near to the peace of heaven, 



That the hawk might nest with the wren; 

 For there in the cool of the even 

 God walked with the first of men." 



The Legend of the Rose, and how She came 

 BY her Thorns. 



Everyone is familiar with the old saying: "There 

 is no rose without a thorn," but, according to ancient 

 mythology, in its primitive state the rose was thorn- 

 less, a belief which Milton must have come across, 

 for when writing of the flowers in the Garden of 

 Eden he says: " Flowers of all hue, and without 

 thorn the rose." 



According to an old Greek fable, the rose is sup- 

 posed to have been thornless, until one unfortunate 

 day when Cupid was smelling a newly-opened 

 bud, and a bee, who was busily engaged in the 

 flower, stung him angrily on the lip for his inter- 

 ference. 



Cupid ran weeping to his mother, who, to pacify 

 him, strung his bow with bees, first removing from 



HI 



