HISTOET OF THE ROSE. 



CHAPTER I. 



THE EARLY HISTORY OP THE ROSE, AND FABLES RESPECTING 



ITS ORIGIN. 



|ERY little is known of the early histoiy of the 

 Rose, or who were its first cultivators ; and on 

 this point all is conjecture. Mention of it is 

 made in the ancient Coptic manuscripts, while 

 nothing concerning it can be distinguished, with 

 any degree of certainty, on the Egyptian 

 monuments which are left us. Bocastre, the French traveler, 

 observes, that he carefully searched all the monuments in 

 Egypt, and could find neither sculpture nor painting, figure 

 nor hieroglyphic, that would lead us to suppose that the Rose 

 was cultivated by the ancient Egyptians. We are, however, 

 induced to believe that this beautiful flower was known to 

 them, from the fact that several varieties are now found in 

 Egypt. Dr. Delile, Director of the Botanic Garden at Mont- 

 pelier, and with whom we enjoyed some pleasant intercourse 

 during a recent visit to that place, was with Napoleon in his 

 expedition to Egypt. In his valuable published account of 

 that expedition, he mentions that he found there two varieties 

 of the Rose — Rosa alba and Rosa centifolia ; and there is also 

 reason to believe, that under Domitian the Egyptians cultivated 



