442 BRECK’S NEW BOOK OF FLOWERS. 
and though there was a great profusion of meat and fruit 
at this entertainment, ‘it might,’ he says, ‘have been 
styled the Feast of Roses, for the floor of the great hall, 
or open-fronted talar, was spread in the middle, and in the 
recess, with Roses forming the figures of cypress-trees ; 
Roses decorated all the candle-sticks, which were very 
numerous. The surface of the Aawz, or reservoir of wa- 
ter, was completely covered with rose-leaves, which also 
were scattered on the principal walks leading to the man- 
sion.’ 
“He says that the surface of this reservoir was so en- 
tirely covered with rose-leaves, that the water was visible 
only when stirred by the air, and that the servants, during 
the entertainment, were continually scattering fresh Roses 
both upon the waters and the floor of the hall.* 
“We must not dismiss the subject of the Rose, without 
recalling to the minds of our readers those beautiful lines 
from Milton : — 
‘Eve separate he spies, 
Veiled in a cloud of fragrance where she stood, 
Half spied, so thick the Roses blushing round 
About her glowed ; oft stooping to support 
Each flower of tender stalk, whose head, though gay 
Carnation, purple, azure, or speck’d with gold, 
Hung drooping unsustained ; them she upstays 
Gently with myrtle band, mindless the while 
Herself, though fairest unsupported flower, 
From her best prop so far, and storm so nigh.’ 
“Jn two different poems, where Venus is represented, 
she has a crown,of white and red flowers : — 
“1 saw anone right her figure 
Nakid yfletyng in a se, 
And also on her hedde parde 
Her rosy garland white and redde.’ 
‘Then father Anchises decked a capacious bowl with garlands, and filled it 
up with wine.’—(Davidson’s Translation.) 
* See Sir W. Ouseley’s Travels in the East, vol. iii, pp. 352 and 353, 
