282 ON THE ROSE. 



the creative imagination of the poet thus pleasingly accounts for 

 this rose having clad itself in a mossy garment : 



" The angel of tbe flowers, one day, 

 Beneath a rose tree, sleeping lay. 

 That spirit — to whose charge is given, 

 To bathe young buds in dews from heaven. 

 Awaking from his light repose, 

 The angel wbisper'd to the rose, — 

 ' O fondest object of my care, 

 Still fairest found where all are fair, 

 For the sweet shade thou'st given to me, 

 Ask what thou wilt, 'tis granted thee,' 

 * Then,' said the rose, 'with deepened glow, 

 On me another grace bestow.' 

 The spirit paused in silent thought, 

 What grace was there that flower had not? 

 'Twas but a moment — o'er, the rose 

 A veil of moss the angel throws. 

 And, robed in nature's simplest weed, 

 Can there a flower that rose exceed ?" 



M. Redoute, the author of a French pictured work on Roses, 

 seems displeased at our claiming the moss rose as originating in 

 England : he says, nous ferons observer qu'il n'est pas rare de 

 voir les Iconographes Anglais considerer beacoup de plantes 

 comme indigenes au sol de leur pays, toutes les fois que le lieu 

 dans lequel elles vegetent naturellement leur est inconnu, circon- 

 stance qui doit faire rejeter toutes les assertions de ce genre." 



Madame de Genlis tells us, that during her first visit to Eng- 

 land, she saw moss roses for the first time, and that she took to 

 Paris a moss rose-tree, which was the first that had been in that 

 city ; and she says, in 1810, " the cultivation of this superb flower 

 is not yet known in France." 



Madame de Latour endeavours to do away with this statement. 

 In a high strain of compliment, she says, " when Madame de 

 Genlis returned from London to Paris, she was become very ce- 

 lebrated, and the crowds of people who went to her house under 

 pretence of seeing the moss rose were attracted thither by that 

 lady's celebrity; and the modesty of Madame Genlis alone could 

 have led her into this error; for this rose tree," she adds, 

 " which is originally from Provence, has been known to us for 

 several ages. 



