OUR QUEEN OF BEAUTY. 4I 



of the Greeks, from Its supposed power to cure hydrophobia ; 

 and they used It, finally, In the embalming of their dead, and 

 In adorning the tombs of their heroes. 



Such are my slender memories of classical allusion to the 

 Rose ; but I do not lament this scantiness, because " I have 

 no opinion," as Mr Llllyvick remarked concerning the 

 French language, of Greek or Roman floriculture. It was 

 the only art In which they did not excel. We know nothing 

 of Greek gardening, and that which we know of Roman 

 Is a disappointment. The arrangement was formal and 

 monotonous. They had '' come to build stately, but not to 

 garden finely : " and upon terraces and under colonnades, 

 around bath-rooms and statue-groups, they placed horrible 

 mutilations of evergreen shrubs, hacked by a diabolical 

 process, which they called the Aj's Topiaria, Into figures 

 of fishes and beasts and fowls, such as our own forefathers 

 once rejoiced in under the system of gardening surnamed 

 the Dutch. The Roman gardener was actually called 

 Topiarhis ; and this terrible tree-barber went proudly round 

 his arboric menagerie with the trenchant shears, pointing 

 snouts, docking tails, and gaily disfiguring the face of 

 nature, with the pleased demeanour of some cheerful savage 

 cleverly tattooing his dearest friend. And history, repeat- 



