8 ADDITIONAL REMARKS ON THE HISTORY OF THE ROSE. 



dess of Beauty. Berkeley, in his Utopia, describes lovers as 

 declaring their passion by presenting to the fair beloved a rosebud 

 just beginning to open ; if the lady accepted and wore the bud, she 

 was supposed to favour his pretensions. As time increased the 

 lover's affection, he followed up the first present by that of a half- 

 blown rose, which was again succeeded by one full blown ; and if 

 the lady wore this last, she was considered engaged for life. In our 

 country, in some parts of Surrey in particular, it was the custom to 

 plant roses round the graves of lovers. The Greeks and Romans 

 observed this practice so religiously that it is often annexed as a 

 codicil to their wills, that roses are ordered to be yearly strewed and 

 planted upon their graves. Such is now universally the practice in 

 New South Wales. And in our own country, it is the practice in 

 some places when a child is carried to be buried, for young girls, 

 dressed in white, each to carry a rosebud in her hand. Poetry, too, 

 is lavish of roses ; it heaps them into beds, weaves them into crowns, 

 twines them into arbours, forges them into chains, adorns with 

 them the goblet, plants them in the bosom of beauty. Nay, not 

 only delights to bring in the rose itself upon every occasion, but 

 seizes each particular beauty it possesses as an object of comparison 

 with the loveliest works of nature. As soft as a Rose-leaf; as sweet 

 as a Rose ; Rosy clouds ; Rosy-cheeks ; Rosy-lips ; Rosy-blushes ; 

 Rosy-dawns, &c. 



Fabulous history says the Red Rose is indebted for its colour to 

 the blood which flowed from the thorn-wounded feet of Venus when 

 running through the woods in despair for the loss of Adonis ; and 

 the White Rose to have sprung from the tears which she shed on 

 that occasion. 



" It has been asserted, that the rose flourishes only between 

 the 20° and 10° of latitude ; a theory disproved by the existence of 

 the rose of Montezuma, the Abyssinian rose, and several other 

 varieties. *' 



" Various countries possess their specific species of rose, unknown 

 elsewhere, unless by transplantation. Of these, some extend their 

 growth to a province, some to a smaller space of territory ; some 

 even restrict themselves to a single mountain or solitary rock. The 

 Rosa Polliiiiana is peculiar to Mount Baldo, in Italy ; the Rosa 

 Lyonii to Tenessee, in North America ; while the Rosa arvensis, or 

 field-rose, is to be found in all the countries of Europe ; and the 



