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strewn over the floors of the rooms in which the feast was 
held. It is related that Nero spent fifty thousand dollars 
in the purchase of Roses for one supper, on which occa- 
sion the floor of the apartment was covered to the depth 
of one foot and a half. It is also related that mattresses 
were made of Roses for men of rank to recline upon, and 
that Gallienus, the Roman emperor, had such a bed. 
Here, perhaps, we have the origin of the old saying that 
a person born to a life of luxury has fallen into a ‘‘ bed 
of Roses.’? The Rose was in Grecian lore the Flower of 
Venus, which Cupid consecrated to Harpocratus, the 
God of Silence. Therefore, the Rose is the emblem of 
secrecy, and hence the old saying, ‘‘under the Rose,”’ 
implying, keep secret. In rooms for convivial meetings 
it was once customary to place a Rose above the table, 
signifying that everything spoken there ought not to be 
divulged. In the Eastern countries the petals of the Rose 
‘are converted into beads by being pounded in an iron 
mortar, which gives the paste a black color. It is then 
moulded or rolled into spherical form and polished; after _ 
being perfumed, they are perforated with a red hot wire. 
The rosary of beads used by Roman Catholics in their 
devotion was formerly made in thismanner. Roses have 
also on several occasions been consecrated by various 
Popes, and sent as presents to such monarchs as evoked 
their special favor. This ceremony dates back as far as 
A. D. 1049, and gave rise to the order of the Golden Rose. 
Edward I., King of England, was not only a ciusader, 
but so aided the Popes in the Sicilian wars that a Golden 
Rose was presented to him, and he was the first English 
king that adopted the Rose as a national badge. Since 
then and up to the present day the Rose has been the 
national flower of England. Rose water was known to 
the Greeks in the time of Homer, and to Avicenna among 
