ROSE. 



273 



ter ; Suetonius affirms that Nero spent upwards of 4,000,000 of 

 sesterces, about thirty thousand pounds, for Roses, at one sup- 

 per. Horace alludes to this custom in his thirty-eighth Ode, 

 Book i. 



' Seek not for late-blowing Roses ; I ask no other crown than simple 



Myrtle.' 



" It is said that the Turks cannot endure to see a Rose-leaf 

 fall to the ground, because, says Gerarde, * some of them have 

 dreamed that the first Rose sprang from the blood of Venus.' 



" It may, perhaps, be worth while to quote Gerarde's transla- 

 tion of a passage from Anacreon, rather for its curiosity than 

 beauty : 



' The Rose is the honor and beauty of flowers, 

 The Rose is the care and the love of the spring, 

 The Rose is the pleasure of th' heavenly powers ; 

 The boy of fair Venus, Cythera's darling, 

 Doth wrap his head round with garlands of Rose, 

 When to the dances of the Graces he goes.' 



"Many species of the Rose preserve their sweet perfume even 

 after death ; as the poet observes in the following passage : 



' And first of all, the Rose ; because its breath 

 Is rich beyond the rest ; and when it dies, 

 It doth bequeath a charm to sweeten death.' 



" The very essence of this sweet perfume is extracted from 

 the flowers ; and the attar of Roses is ( dearer than gold : 



' The Rose looks fair, but fairer we it deem 

 For that sweet odor which doth in it live. 

 The canker blooms have full as deep a dye 

 As the perfumed tincture of the Rqses, 

 Hang on such thorns, and play as wantonly, 

 When summer's breath their masked buds discloses. 

 But, for their virtue only is their show, 

 They live unmoved, and unrefpected fade ; 

 Die to themselves ; sweet Roses do not so ; 

 Of their sweet deaths are sweetest odors made.' " 



" The Moss Rose, or Moss Provence Rose, is well known as 

 an elegant plant. The flowers are deeply colored, and the rich 



