12 THE ROSE GARDEN. 



our flower. The Rose was without the pale. The Tulip, the Hyacinth, the 

 Ranunculus, the Anemone — these, with a few of minor importance, were the pride 

 of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries : these were the flowers of Holland ; 

 and the enthusiasm with which they were cultivated there had rendered them 

 popular in other European countries. Thus the Rose lay neglected. Its capabi- 

 lities of improvement were not thought of, or unknown. The unlocking of its 

 treasures was reserved for more recent times. The skilful and persevering indi- 

 viduals, to whose labours we are indebted for the choicest ornaments of the Rose 

 Garden, still live to admire the productions of their genius, and to witness their 

 favourite flower reigning without a rival in the Floral world. 



Let us turn to France, a country naturally rich in Roses. According to 

 Decandolle, she has no less than nineteen species growing spontaneously in her 

 hedges, woods, and wilds. The chief among them is the Rosa Gallica, or French 

 Rose, which has produced some of the most brilliant and regularly-formed flowers 

 of the genus. 



The country abounding in Roses, we should expect its poets would not fail to 

 notice them ; and perhaps in no other language have so many beautiful com- 

 parisons been instituted, or so many verses written in their praise. Delille 

 exclaims, "Mais qui peut refuser un hommage a la Rose?" (Who can refuse 

 homage to the Rose ?) And Bernard, Malherbe, Saint Victor, Roger, Leonard, 

 and others too numerous to mention, have made it the subject of the most 

 delightful strains. 



Rapin, a French writer of the seventeenth century, gives a pleasing and inge- 

 nious tale, which I shall venture to insert. 



" Rhodanthe, Queen of Corinth, having enamoured several princes with her 

 beauty, and having disdained their proffers of homage, three of them, furious to 

 see themselves despised, besieged her in the temple of Diana, where she had taken 

 refuge, followed by all the people, who, dazzled by her extraordinary beauty, 

 made her assume the place of the statue of the goddess. Apollo, enraged by the 

 indignity offered to his sister, changed Rhodanthe into a tree which bore the 

 Rose. Under this new form Rhodanthe is always queen, for she became the 

 most beautiful of flowers. Her subjects pressed around her, seem still to defend 

 her, metamorphosed, as they are, into prickly thorns. The three princes were 

 changed ; the one into a butterfly, and the two others into winged insects, which, 

 constant in their love, flutter without ceasing around their cherished flower." {La 

 Rose, &c, par Dr. Deslongschamps.) 



There exists at the present day, in the village of Salency in France, a custom 

 which is of very ancient date. As early as the sixth century, the Bishop of 

 Noyon offered a prize of a crown of Roses, to be given yearly to the maid of the 

 village who should have earned the greatest reputation for modesty and virtue. 

 The villagers have the power of appointing her who shall receive it ; and it is 

 awarded with much ceremony and rejoicing. 



It is the opinion of some of the French authors on this flower, that Roses were 



