BoSCt iDamaSU'na. Natural Order: Rosacece—Rose Family. 
Damascus, a city one of the most ancient and renowned 
in Syria, gives its name to this particular variety of Rose, 
"which blooms monthly, and, under favorable circumstances, 
pat all seasons. The Rose is said to have been the favorite 
Tower of Venus, and was formerly white, until she, being in 
haste to assist her dying lover, pierced her foot with a thorn, and 
some of the blood falling on it changed its color from white to red. It 
grows about four feet high, most of the monthly sorts being dwarfish 
in habit. 
JShtsijittg Jbanh| + 
T TNTO the ground she cast her modest eye, 
^ And ever and anon, with rosy red, 
The bashful blush her snowy cheeks did dye. 
— Spenser. 
TF Jove would give the leafy bowers 
A A queen for all their world of flowers, 
The rose would be the choice of Jove, 
And reign the queen of every grove. 
' IVE me the eloquent cheek 
Where blushes burn and die; 
Like time, its changes speak 
The spirit’s purity. 
-Moore. 
-Frances Sargent Osgood. 
B 
EAUTY was lent to nature as the type 
Of heaven’s unspeakable and holy joy. 
-Mrs. Hale. 
TTTE are blushing roses, 
* * Bending with our fulness, 
’Midst our close-capp’d sister buds, 
Warming the green coolness. 
Of all flowers, 
Methinks a rose is best. 
It is the very emblem of a maid, 
For when the west wind courts her gently, 
How modestly she blows, and paints the sun 
With her chaste blushes! 
—Beaumont and Fletcher. 
Whatsoe’er of beauty 
Yearns and yet reposes, 
Blush, and bosom, and sweet breath, 
Took a shape in roses. 
—Leigh Hunt. 
HE lilies faintly to the roses yield, 
As on thy lovely cheek they struggling vie, - 
(Who would not strive upon so sweet a field 
To win the mastery?) 
And thoughts are in thy speaking eyes reveal’d, 
Pure as the fount the prophet’s rod unseal’d. 
— Hoffman. 
262 
