ROSE. 139 



flowers. In the Apocrypha, wisdom is compared to the &quot;rose- 

 plant in Jericho,&quot; an expression which shows that it was 

 peculiar to that place or that it was not elsewhere so common. 

 The richness of the soil about Jericho \vas proverbial in the 

 time of Josephus; and, where the soil is fertile and well cared 

 for, the luxuriance of the rose is exceeding. It would rapidly 

 degenerate or entirely disappear after the cultivation of the 

 soil ceased; and as the gardens were neglected soon after the 

 commencement of the Christian era, we may reasonably sup 

 pose that the roses began to fail about the same time. The 

 monks, however, during the times of the Crusades, discovered 

 a singular umbelliferous plant which grows a few inches above 

 the soil, bears a number of small ilowers containing a seed, and 

 when it dies folds up and is blown over the soil, opening when 

 it comes in contact with moisture. They called it the &quot;rose of 

 Jericho.&quot; But this is a modern invention and a usurpation of 

 the name, w T hich evidently belonged to a totally different plant, 

 as may be seen from an examination of Scripture. There were 

 places in Palestine, as in other countries, w r here the rose and 

 other flowers grew either in greater profusion or in greater 

 excellence than in other places. Hence the rose of Sharon 

 and the rose of Jericho were probably only very agreeable 

 developments of the rose, due either to the richer soil of 

 Sharon and Jericho, or the greater skill of the florists of those 

 places. Very beautiful double varieties have been obtained by 

 simply cultivating carefully the almost scentless single wild 

 rose. 



