THE ROSE. 217 



leaves,* when their beauty is dimmed by the touch 

 of time, should convey a moral lesson of such force 

 that we wish still to see every bride crowned with 

 a chaplet of real roses. 



Rose-wreaths were also worn at the feasts of the 

 ancients ; Lucan thus decorates the assemblage at 

 the banquet of Cleopatra ; 



" With wreaths of nard,f the guests their temples bind, 

 And blooming roses of immortal kind." 



The Corona sutilis of the Salii, was, in early 

 times, made of various flowers sewed together, in- 

 stead of being wreathed with their stalks and 

 leaves, but afterwards the petals of roses only were 

 used, and these were delicately and expertly stitched 

 together, so as to form the most elegant, and shell- 

 like, though of course, the most perishable wreaths. J 



Finally, the flower which had thus marked and 

 graced the various epochs of life, was used to deck 

 the tomb. So anxious were the Romans regarding 

 this custom, that Pierius, in the fifty-fifth book of 

 his Hieroglyphics, says they even provided for its 

 observance in their wills. Propertius, and several 



* The botanist must really, for once, forgive the application 

 of the word leaf to the petals of the rose ; as "rose-leaves" 

 they are all over the world, and " rose-leaves " they must re- 

 main : for with all due respect for what Schleiden so hap- 

 pily terms " the hay" of botany I cannot possibly call them 

 petals ! 



t Spikenard? 



J Many wreaths found in the tombs of the ancient Egyp- 

 tians are made of leaves sewn together, with the xeranthe- 

 mum flowers inserted into each stitch. 



