THE INFLUENCE OF CLIMATE 9 



and carnations follow ; then, last and best of 

 all, come the roses, giant bushes covered with 

 huge, pink, fragrant flowers, such masses as are 

 seen in Europe only in the pictures of some 

 fairy tale. White roses too, and red and 

 yellow; but the pink roses were always the 

 artist's favourites. For a few weeks longer 

 the gardens and hillsides are at their brightest ; 

 then the petals fall, as summer comes and 

 burns the land into one unending dusty 

 monotone. 



Summer flowers ! There are no such things 

 outside the carefully tended gardens. 



This concentration of growth and beauty into 

 a brief period deeply affected the imagination 

 of the people, and aU their arts reflect the national 

 love of flowers. No wonder, then, that all the 

 Persian poets join with old Omar in his lament, 

 " Alas, that Spring should vanish with the 

 rose ! " 



The other great influence, that of religion, 

 is explained by the restrictions of the Koran, 

 which forbade the delineation of human beings 

 or animals, so that the artists of the faithful were 

 confined to floral or geometrical designs. The 

 Shiah sect of Aryan Persia never held very closely 



