23 
person who receives it, however dear to you; or if you 
form a design near it, it willcome to naught. Grose tells 
us in the following lines of the custom of gathering the 
Rose on midsummer eve—observed from time imme- 
morial amongst our rural population : 
The Moss Rose that at fall of dew 
(Ere eve its duskier curtain drew) 
Was freshly gathered from its stem, 
She values as the ruby gem; 
And guarded from the piercing air, 
With all an anxious lover’s care, 
She bids it for her shepherd’s sake 
Await the New Year’s frolic wake,— 
W hen, faded, in its altered hue, 
She reads—the rustic is untrue; 
But if it leaves the crimson paint, 
Her sickening hopes no longer faint; 
The Rose upon her bosom worn, 
She meets him at the peep of morn, 
And lo! her lips with Kisses prest, 
He plucks it from her panting breast. 
A beetle is often represented on antique gems as expiring, 
surrounded by Roses; and this is supposed to be an em- 
blem of a man enervated by luxury—the beetle being 
said to have such an antipathy to Roses, that the smell 
of them will cause its death. There is a saying that a 
Rose will not blossom on being transplanted into any 
country in which it is not indigenous, until it has first 
been burnt down. It has been asserted that in Chili this 
saying was verified by the fact that after the Roses which 
had been imported into that district had for several sea- 
sons been totally barren of all bloom, a fire accidentally 
occurred which burnt the bushes to the ground, and that 
from thenceforth the trees flowered freely. In certain 
districts in Italy, the red Rose is considered to be an em- 
blem of early death, and it is an evil omen to scatter its 
