6 HISTORY OF THE ROSE. 



the Greek poetess, writing about 600 B.C., selects the 

 Rose as the Queen of Flowers in the following lines : — 



** Would you appoint some flower to reign 

 In matchless beauty on the plain, 

 The Rose (Mankind will all agree). 

 The Rose the Queen of Flowers should be." 

 " For the Rose, Ho, the Rose ! is the grace of the 

 earth ! " (Sappho could not have been the first, and 

 she certainly has not been the last, to sing of the Rose). 

 Omar Khayyam from the East sings : — 



** But fairest of them all, the Rosebud sweet, 

 With modest blush her skirt doth closely lace." 



Omar, with scent of attar of roses in his nostrils, had 

 to pay tribute, as also our now immortal Shakespeare, 

 in the words, " As sweet as damask Roses," and, 

 "With sweet musk Roses and with Eglantine." If 

 the Greeks were ardent admirers of the rose, no less 

 were the Romans, who made great advances in its 

 culture, and created quite an industry by their demand 

 for blooms and trees. It is wonderful to find so many 

 allusions in the writings of the ancients to this flower, 

 and the cultural notes given to us, together with refer- 

 ences as to its popularity through so many centuries, 

 prove beyond doubt the existence of countless varieties 

 now gone. 



Nero is credited by Suetonius, the Latin writer, of 

 having spent four millions of sesterces in Roses for one 

 feast, which in money is equivalent to over ;^30,ooo — 

 a severe tax on the Rose gardens of his day ! But it 

 is a testimony to the popularity of the Queen of 

 Flowers. Indeed, not only was the Rose used as a 

 means of decoration, but the floors of banqueting halls 

 were strewn with petals. 



The question might arise as to whether or no the 

 majority of Roses used in ancient days were those 

 culled from the hedgerow and the field, but I think, 

 without doubt, they were cultivated varieties. Horace, 

 who writes at length on horticulture, gives us interest- 

 ing mention of the growing of Roses in beds, and I 



