220 WILD FLOWERS. 



that the well-known " York and Lancaster " rose, 

 the old fashioned rose of our childhood, whose red 

 and white petals bear, peacefully commingled, the 

 colours of the contending parties, might have sprung 

 from this ungenial soil, and drawn its beauties from 

 the field of civil fight to exhibit an undying re- 

 proof to ages yet unborn. The jongleurs, however, 

 of old days, make white and red roses spring up 

 spontaneously all over the field of Roncevalles, from 

 the blood of the martyred Roland and the " doux 

 pairs." 



At any rate we may fancy this as readily as we 

 listen to the pretty ancient tales of the origin of 

 the two colours in the separate blossoms, to which 

 I shall presently revert. 



The Roman Catholic Church appears to have se- 

 lected the rose as her emblem ; and in her liturgies 

 terms the Virgin Mary " Rosa Mystica," on which 

 account the Pope carries a golden rose in his hand 

 when he goes to celebrate mass, in St. Peter's, on 

 Rose Sunday (Domenica di Rosa) or mid-lent. 

 Durandus describes this custom as typical of two 

 things : namely, of the interval of rejoicing which 

 the church allowed and even desired, at this period 

 of the fast ; for the " colour of the rose/' he con- 

 tinues, signifies charity ; the perfume, joy ; and the 

 flavour, satiety ; for the rose above all flowers de- 

 lights by its colour, refreshes by its perfume, and 

 comforts by its flavour:"* and in another point of 

 view it is," he asserts the "flower of the field," 

 spoken of in the Psalms ; an expression which he 

 * See Soane's " New Curiosities of Literature." 



