164 



PAESONS OK THE KOSE. 



made of transparent material, and filled with roses of 

 Malta, having in his hand a net of the fmest linen, and 

 equally full of these flowers, whose fragrance incessantly 

 gratified his eager nostrils." 



Latinus Pacatus, in his enlogiiim on the Emperor Theo- 

 dosius, inveighs against the luxury of the Romans, whoso 

 sensual desires, he says, were not satisfied until they had 

 reversed the order of the seasons, and produced roses in 

 the winter season to crown their cup of wine, and until 

 their Falernian, during the summer, was cooled in large 

 vessels filled with ice. The forcins: of roses in winter is 

 no longer extensively practiced in Rome ; but during the 

 summer they are abundant, and we recollect being much 

 struck with admiration of some beautiful hedges of the 

 Daily rose in the villas near Rome. 



After reading the preceding statements of the abund- 

 ance of roses among the ancient Romans, it is with some 

 surprise that we recollect the great scarcity of that flower 

 during the gayest and most animated festival of the mod- 

 ern Romans — the Carnival. As we slowly walked along 

 the Corso, submitting with as quiet a grace as possible to 

 the various fantastic tricks of the masked figures around 

 us, and occasionally pelted with handfuls of sugar-plums 

 from the windows, or j^assing carriages, we looked in vain 

 for roses or camellias in the numerous bouquets that were 

 cleaving the air around us. Little bouquets of violets 

 were numerous, and the air v/as thick with them, as our 

 eyes, nose, and mouth, could bear striking witness ; and 

 we recollect, too, the contemptuous curl of the lip, and 

 rush of the aristocratic blood into the face of a fair En- 

 glish girl in one of the carriages whose blue eyes had been 

 nearly closed by an awkward cast of one of these little 

 bouquets from the hand of a plebian performer. But we 

 only recollect catching a glimpse now and then of a single 

 rose or camellia, skillfully passed by a cavalier below into 

 the hands of some dark-eyed beauty in the balconies 



