LUXUKIOUS USE OF THE ROSE. 



IGl 



CHAPTER XI. 



LUXURIOUS USE OF THE ROSE, 



The ancients possessed, at a very early period, the lux- 

 ury of roses, and the Romans brought it to perfection by 

 coveriiio- with beds of these flowers the couches whereon 

 their guests were placed, and even the tables which were 

 used for banquets;^ while some emperors went so far as 

 to scatter them in the halls of their palaces. At Rome, 

 they were, at one time, brought from Egypt in that part 

 of the year when Italy could not produce them ; but af- 

 terwards, in order to render these luxuries more easily at- 

 tainable during the winter by the leaders of the ton in 

 that capital city of the world's empire, their gardeners 

 found the means of producing, in green-houses warmed 

 by means of pipes filled with hot water, an artificial tem- 

 perature, Avhich kept roses and lilies in bloom until the 

 last of the year. Seneca declaimed, with a show of ridi- 

 cule, against these improvements;! but, without being 

 discouraged by the reasoning of the philosopher, the Ro- 

 mans carried their green-houses to such perfection that, 

 at length, during the reign of Domitian, when the Egyp- 

 tians thought to pay him a splendid compliment in honor 

 of his birthday, by sending him roses in the midst of 

 winter, their present excited nothing but ridicule and 

 disdain, so abundant had winter roses become at Rome 

 by the efforts of art. Few of the Latin poets have been 



* Tempora subtilius pinguntur tecta coronis, 

 Et Litent injecta splendida mensa Rosa." (Ovid, lib. v.) 



t ^'Nou vivunt contra Daturam, qui liicme concupiscuut Rosam ? 

 Fomentoque aquarum calentium, et calorum apta imitatione, bruma 

 lilium florem vernum, exprimuut." {Seneca^ epistle 122-8.) 



