CLASS XII. ORDER III. J ROSA. 701 



Tlie Rose, from our earliest records, seems to have been an esteemed 

 and useful plant. According to the account of Pliny, the unguents used 

 to anoint the body after bathing at the time of the Trojan war were 

 commonly oil perfumed with odoriferous herbs, and especially Roses; 

 and Homer in his twenty-third Illiad, where Venus anoints the body of 

 Hector, mentions the ointment as oil mixed with roses ; and speaking 

 of Juuo, he says — 



" First she laved all o'er 

 Her beauteous body with ambrosial lymph, 

 Then polished it with richest oil divine, 

 Of boundless fragrance." Cowper. 



It was a custom amongst the ancients to bedeck the tombs of the 

 dead with various flowers, amongst which the Rose appears to have 

 been one of their favourites. 



" And after death its odours shed 

 A pleasiug fragrance o'er the dead" 



Broome, Anacreon Ode, 53. 



.Sneas, when celebrating the anniversary of his father Anchises' 

 death, is thus represented by Virgil after he " and all the Trojan race" 

 Lad bound their brows with myrtle — 



" iEneas then advanc'd amidst the train, 

 By thousands foUow'd through the flow'ry plain. 

 To great Anchises' tomb ; which, when he found. 

 He pour'd to Bacchus, on the hallow'd ground, 

 Two bowls of sparkling wine, of milk two more, 

 And two (from offer'd bulls) of purple gore- 

 With Roses then the sepulchre he strew'd. 

 And thus his father's ghost bespoke aloud." 



Dryden's Virgil, Book 6. 98. 



Roses and other flowers were sometimes formed into chaplets, as 

 the symbol of distinction : — 



" 'Twas at the royal feast for Persia won, 

 By Philip's warlike son, 

 Aloft in awful state 

 The godlike hero sat 



On his imperial throne : 

 His valiant peers were placed around 

 Their brows with Roses and with Myrtles bound, 

 (So should desert in arms be crown'd.)" 



Dryden. 



From the account of Pliny, it appears Roses were much esteemed and 

 considerably cultivated by the Romans. He mentions several sorts of 

 those which are fragrant, and others that are not ; and he gives some 

 hints as to the nature of the soil best suited for them, and the mode of 

 their cultivation : but now the Rose is so universal a favourite, that 

 every garden, whether attached to the humble cottage or to the palace 

 has one or more species to adorn it. The shrub is variable in size, 

 from a few inches to twelve or more feet high ; the colour of its flowers 



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