8o FLORAL SYMBOLISM 



cated to the Madonna, the rose frequently occurs. 



It does not supersede the lily, which was the 



flower especially consecrated to her, but it is 



found beside it. The Church of S. Maria Mag- 



giore in Rome is ornamented along the aisles, 



above the side chapels, with a series of panels, 



gold on white, which show the floral emblems 



of the Virgin. The rose, the lily, the olive, the 



laurel and the vine alternate down the whole 



length of the church. The beautiful little 



chapel behind the shrine of the Santissima 



Annunziata, in the Church of the Annunziata in 



Florence, was decorated in the seventeenth 



century with inlaid and raised pietra-dura work. 



Each of the five onyx panels which form the walls 



has upon it an emblem of the Virgin — the sun, 



the moon, the Stella maris, the lily, and, most 



lovely of them all, the branch of roses below 



the words * Rosa Mystica.' This rose is red, 



and, strangely enough, the red rose, rather than 



the white, was chosen to represent the Virgin. 



Wrote Guido Orlandi in 1292: 



' If thou hadst said, my friend, of Mary, 

 Loving and full of grace; 

 Thou art a red rose planted in the garden ; 

 Thou wouldst have written fittingly.' 



