The Rose. 
27 
upon the heads of those whom it was intended should be 
honoured at great festivals. The plants selected were the pars¬ 
ley, the ivy, the myrtle, and the rose—all of which were con¬ 
sidered to act as antidotes to the effects of wine. 
Rose-trees were employed both by the Greeks and Romans 
to decorate graves ; and instances are given of rose gardens 
being bequeathed by their proprietors for the purpose of fur¬ 
nishing flowers to cover their places of sepulture. They fre¬ 
quently invoked the most bitter imprecations against those 
who dared to violate these sacred plantations. Sometimes the 
dying man ordered that his heirs should meet every year, on 
the anniversary of his decease, to dine together near his tomb, 
and to crown it with roses from his sepulchral plantation. 
The early Christians strongly disapproved of the employ¬ 
ment of flowers, either at feasts or at burials, because they 
were so used by the Pagans. Tertullian wrote a book against 
garlands ; and Clement of Alexandria did not think it right 
that kings should be crowned with roses, as Christ was crowned 
with thorns. St. Anselm launched anathemas against those 
who made pilgrimages to the wells and fountains of reputed 
saints in order to strew them with flowers. Notwithstanding- 
the strenous opposition of their clergy, however, the Roman 
converts persisted in their floral rites ; and, alluding to such 
practices, Bishop Heber says, “If this be heathenish, Heaven 
help the wicked !” 
The custom is prevalent in many countries of placing a 
chaplet of flowers above the dead. In some parts of the south 
of England, a wreath of white roses is borne before the corpse 
of a maiden by a young girl, and after the burial is hung up 
over her accustomed seat at church. “They are emblemati¬ 
cal,” says Washington Irving, in his Sketch Book, “of purity, 
and the crown of glory which she has received in heaven.” 
L. E. Landon’s exquisite lines, entitled “The Legacy of the 
Roses,” are stated to have been suggested by a bequest that 
Edward Rose, a citizen of London, who died in 1653, made. 
He left twenty pounds (a considerable sum in those days) for 
the purchase of an acre of land, for the poor of the village of 
Barnes in Surrey, where his remains are placed, upon condition 
that a number of rose-trees should be planted around his grave, 
and kept well tended. 
