HISTORY OF THE ROSE. 



" Round every flower there gleams a glory, 

 Bequeathed by antique song or story ; 

 To each old legends give a name, 

 And its peculiar charm proclaim. 

 O'er smiling lawn, through shady grore, 

 Our dreaming poets pensive rove, 

 And strive to read their language rare, 

 And learn the lesson latent there." 



CHAPTER X. 



THE EARLY HISTORY OF THE ROSE, AND FABLES 

 RESPECTING ITS ORIGIN. 



Very little is known of the early history of the Rose, 

 or who were its first cultivators ; and on this point all is 

 conjecture. Mention of it is made in the ancient Coptic 

 manuscripts, while nothing concerning it can be distin- 

 guished, with any degree of certainty, on the Egyptian 

 monuments which are left us. Bocastre, the French trav- 

 eler, observes that he carefully searched all the monuments 

 in Egypt, and could find neither sculpture nor painting, 

 figure nor hieroglyphic, that would lead us to suppose that 

 the Rose was cultivated by the ancient Egyptians. We 

 are, however, induced to believe that this beautiful flower 

 was known to them, from the fact that several varieties 

 are now found in Egypt. Dr. Delile, Director of the Bo- 

 tanic Garden at Montpelier, and with whom we enjoyed 

 some pleasant intercourse during a visit to that place, 

 was with Napoleon in his expedition to Egypt. In his 

 153 7* 



