224 WILD FLOWERS. 



In short, they appear never to tire of allusions to 

 the love of the bird for the blossom, and represent 

 it as singing most sweetly when pressing a rose- 

 thorn into its breast. 



The rose was dedicated to Venus, under the suppo- 

 sition, that when Minerva sprang from the brain of 

 Jupiter, and Yenus simultaneously rose from the 

 waves, the earth brought forth this flower so much 

 more beautiful than anything which had been before 

 produced, to celebrate the double birth ; and there- 

 fore, says Gerarde, the Easterns " can by no means 

 endure to see the leaves of roses fall to the grounde." 

 This original rose was supposed to have been white, 

 and the fable continues, that the first red rose was 

 that, upon whose thorns Venus trod when flying to 

 succour the wounded Adonis. 



" She treads upon a thorned rose, 



And while the wound with crimson flows 

 The snowy flow'ret feels her blood, and blushes." 



Far more beautiful, however, are the various 

 Eastern versions of the tale, one of which relates, 

 that, Eve, gazing in admiration on the white rose 

 of Paradise, laid her rosy lips on its snowy blossom, 

 which, receiving the impression of their colour, be- 

 came the parent of all future red roses ; while 

 another, as related by Sir John Mandeville, affirms ; 

 that the rose never existed at all in the Garden of 

 Eden, but that the first of the species ever seen, 

 sprang up in a field called Floridus, on the eastern 

 side of Ephrata. For there, a fair maid, unjustly 

 accused, had been condemned to be burned ; when, 



