24 
The Rose. 
Greek poets of whom any writings are extant, has left a refe¬ 
rence to the rose in the following fanciful lines : 
“Many a yellow quince was there 
Piled upon the regal chair; 
Many a verdant myrtle bough— 
Many a rose crown fealy wreathed 
With twisted violets that grow 
Where the breath of Spring has breathed.” 
Sappho, a contemporary of this latter author, wrote an exqui¬ 
site ode to the rose; and Thomas Moore, the modern Anacreon, 
has thus transferred to the English the burning langmagfe of the 
Lesbian maid : b 
“If Jove would give the leafy bowers 
A queen for all their world of flowers, 
The rose would be the choice of Jove, 
And blush the queen of every grove. 
Sweetest child of weeping morning, 
Gem, the breast of earth adorning, 
Eye of flow’rets, glow of lawns, 
Bud of beauty, nursed by dawns : 
Soft the soul of love it breathes, 
Cypria’s brow with magic wreathes; 
And to the Zephyr’s warm caresses, 
Diffuses all its verdant tresses, 
Till glowing with the wanton’s play, 
It blushes a diviner ray.” 
Anacreon, Love’s own minstrel, in language scarcely surpassed 
by the glowing words of his unfortunate fellow-votary, Sappho, 
has celebrated the powers of the rose ; and, in lines eloquent 
as his master’s own, the admiring Antipater, in his ode to the 
glorious Tean, prays that— 
“Around thy tomb, O bard divine! 
Where soft thy hallow’d brow reposes, 
Long may the deathless ivy twine, 
And Summer pour her wealth of roses.” 
Theophrastus tells us that in his days the hundred-leaved rose 
(which is emblematic of grace) grew on Mount Pangaeus. It 
would seem that the Isle of Rhodes (z.e., roses) was so desig¬ 
nated from the culture of those flowers having been ancientfy 
carried on there. Pliny mentions several sorts of roses culti¬ 
vated by the Romans, and those of Campania, Miletus, and 
Cyrene were the most celebrated. Loudon seems to think that 
the white rose (typical of silence), and the yellow rose (typify- 
