HOW THE ROSE BECAME RED. 
65 
sorrow is the long, unbroken sleep of death. Thus 
the Rose, which was before white, became red, and 
was ever afterwards dedicated to Beauty and Love. 
And the Lily of the Valley ever afterwards came 
up with the earliest flowers of spring, proclaiming 
that Happiness may again return even after the long 
silence of Death’s unbroken, wintry sleep. 
The Rose is the queen of flowers, and neither in 
beauty nor fragrance has she an equal throughout 
the wide range of the whole floral world. There 
are now above a hundred varieties of the common 
or Provence Rose, which were first brought from 
the East many centuries ago, and from these every 
species of the Moss-rose first sprung. Even its 
very foliage is graceful: and the comparison be¬ 
tween an opening rosebud and beauty dawning into 
womanhood, has become a standard and favourite 
flower in the choice garden of English poetry. In 
ancient days the bride was crowned with roses ; 
they were suspended over the heads of the guests 
while they sat at their banquets, and solemnly 
carried by white-robed virgins in their religious 
processions. Some of the most admirable passages 
which are to be found in Oriental poetry, are de¬ 
scriptive of the love of the nightingale for the rose. 
F 
