ROSES 191 



India after their conquest of that country. In India, in days 

 long before the Mohammedan Conquest, there were gardens, 

 and in Sanscrit songs flowers were praised, but the rose was not 

 amongst them.' 



As there must always have been abundance of wild 

 roses in India, the absence of a name is very remark- 

 able. 



And there is one point in the literatui'e of the rose 

 that should not be passed by, and that is the complete 

 change of sentiment with which the French and English 

 writers have looked on the rose as compared with the 

 Greek and Eoman writers. By the Greeks and Eomans 

 the rose was always connected with scenes of revelry 

 and licentiousness (a few passages on the fleeting char- 

 acter of the flower notwithstanding). It was dedicated 

 to Venus, Bacchus, and Cupid, and in the phrase sub 

 rosd we still perpetuate its connection with banquets 

 and revelry. I believe it is much the same with the 

 Eastern poets, but I have too little acquaintance with 

 them to speak positively. Madame de Genlis counted 

 among the triumphs of Christianity the conversion of 

 the rose, 'profan^e par la mythologie et par le cidte 

 paien,' to the uses of the Church. This may be a little 

 far-fetched, but it is the fact that the feelings connected 

 with the rose by French and English writers are entirely 

 different, except in the few cases where the writers have 



