\S6 SYLVA FLOIUFERA. 



" While the enamour'd queen of joy 

 Flies to protect her lovely boy, 



On whom the jealous war-god rushes ; 

 She treads upon a thorned rose, 

 And while the wound with crimson flows, 



The snowy floweret feels her blood, and blushes !" 



Mythological writers also relate that Rho- 

 dante, queen of Corinth, to avoid the pursuit 

 of her lovers, fled into the temple of Diana to 

 conceal herself; but being besieged by lovers, 

 and obliged to appear, she called on the people 

 for assistance, who, on beholding her beauty, 

 threw down the statue of Diana, and declared 

 her to be the goddess of the temple ; upon 

 which Apollo changed her into a rose. 



The first rose ever seen was said to have 

 been given by the god of love to Harpocrates, 

 the god of silence, to engage him not to di- 

 vulge the amours of his mother Venus ; and 

 from hence the ancients made it a symbol of 

 silence, and it became a custom to place a 

 rose above their heads in their banqueting 

 rooms, in order to banish restraint, as nothing 

 there said would be repeated elsewhere ; and 

 from this practice originated the saying, 

 " Under the rose," when any thing was to be 

 kept secret. 



The Turks are great admirers of this lovely 

 flower, and Mussulmen in general believe, 

 that it first sprang from the perspiration of 



