THE EOSE. 



IN my description of flowering trees and shrubs, I 

 must not omit the Rose, the most celebrated and the 

 most beautiful of flowers ; the delight of mankind in all 

 ages and in every country ; the pride of all gardens, and 

 the chief ornament of the field and woodside ; the poetic 

 emblem of love and the symbol of truth, inasmuch as its 

 beauty is accompanied by the virtues of sweetness and 

 purity. In every language have its praises been sung, 

 and poets have bestowed upon it all the epithets that 

 could be applied to a direct gift from Heaven. From its 

 graces, too, they borrow those images they would bestow 

 upon the living objects of their idolatry. The modest 

 blush of innocence is but the tint of the Rose ; its hues 

 are the flush of morning and the " purple light of love." 

 The nightingale is supposed to have become the chief of 

 singing birds by warbling the praises of the Rose, inspired 

 by the beauty of this flower with that divine ecstasy 

 which characterizes his lay. In all ages the Rose has had 

 part in the principal festivities of the people, the offering 

 of love and the token of favor ; the crown of the bride 

 at bridal feasts, and the emblem of all virtue and all 

 delight. 



So important a shrub as the Rose cannot be an incon- 

 spicuous feature either in our wild or our domestic scen- 

 ery. Every wood contains one or two species in their 

 wild state, and every enclosure in our villages some 

 beautiful foreign roses, which are equally familiar to our 

 sight. I have nothing to say of the multitude of im- 



