ON THE ROSE. 231 



an antipathy to roses, that the odour of this flower will cause its 

 death ; from which the ancients devised the allegory, to describe 

 a man enervated by luxury, by representing him under the image 

 of a beetle expiring surrounded by roses. 



Madame de Genlis tells us that formerly the rose was so pre- 

 cious in France that in several parts of that country the inhabi- 

 tants, were not allowed to cultivate it, as if all but the powerful 

 were unworthy of such a gift ; and at other times we find it men- 

 tioned among the ancient rights of manors, to levy a tax or tri- 

 bute of so many bushels of roses, for the provision of rose-water 

 for their lord, whose table was also covered with rose leaves in- 

 stead of napkins. The French parliament had formerly a great 

 day of ceremony, called " Baillee de Roses," because great 

 quantities of roses were then distributed. 



We presume that it was formerly more customary to use rose 

 water, in this country than at present, as we find amongst the 

 charges in the account of a dinner of Lord Leiyster, chancellor, 

 of the university of Oxford, Sept. 5th, 1570: " For iij oz. of 

 rose-watere, for boylde meats, and leaches, gelleys, and drie 

 leaches, and marche payne, and to wash afore dinnere iij s. ix d." 



Rose water is still in such demand in Damascus, for the pur- 

 poses of cookery, that many hogsheads of it are sold daily in the 

 markets of that city. 



As we now possess upwards of eight hundred different kinds of 

 Roses, it would be in vain to attempt the description of all the 

 varieties and sub-varieties, which nothing short of the most mi- 

 nute inspection can discover, and the nicest pencil pourtray. To 

 such of our resders as wish to see the roses pictured, we recom- 

 mend them to inspect the work which Miss Lawrence has pub- 

 lished ifl this country, and " Les Roses, par Redout^," published 

 at Paris in three folio volumes. 



Of the roses which are natives of these islands, the British Bo- 

 tanist of 1820, notice twenty belonging to England, four to Scot- 

 land, one to Ireland, and one to the Scilly Islands. These are 

 made to form seven distinct species in the Hortus Kewensis, the 

 most delightful of which is the sweet-brier, or eglantine, Rosa, 

 Rubiginosa or Eglanteria 



" By sweet-brier hedges, bath'd iu daw, 



Let me my wholesome path pursue." Wharton. 



