T H E Ros E. 
(LOVE.) 
“Love is like a rose.”—P hilip Bailey. 
B Y universal suffrage the Rose has been voted to bethe love¬ 
liest amongst the children of Flora. There is scarcely a 
name of any note in the world’s literature that has not paid a 
willing tribute to the beauties of the “ bloom of love” and a 
collection comprising one tithe of all the choice things said of 
it would amply fill a very respectable-sized library. 
It is, in all probability, a native of the East, whence it tra¬ 
velled westward. It has now become an inhabitant of every 
civilized country, and opes its glowing petals to the sun in 
every quarter of the globe. Its scent is the most exquisite, 
its colours the most fascinating, and its verdure the most re¬ 
freshing of all the beauties of nature. 
Our rose-tree, however, is on a very small scale compared 
with the rose of the East. This latter grows to the height of 
fourteen feet, spreading out widely its branches, heavily laden 
with thick masses of the most lovely flowers. The rose of 
Sharon and the rose of Damascus are the favourites of Oriental 
nations ; and, indeed, we have proofs that this latter species 
has been held in high esteem for nearly two thousand years. 
Few things have been more celebrated in history than the Rose 
Gardens at Paestum in Lucania, which flourished about the 
commencement of the Christian era. 
The rose is mentioned by the earliest writers of antiquity. 
Herodotus speaks of the double rose ; in the Song of Solomon 
is the expression, “ I am the rose of Sharon and allusion is 
also made therein to the plantation of roses at Jericho. Isaiah 
makes use of the beautiful thought—“ The desert shall rejoice 
and blossom as the rose;” and Stesichorus, one of the earliest 
