DROPS FROM FLORA’S CUP. 123 
the rose. We are told that the red rose was once 
white; and many writers give very pretty reasons 
for its losing its paleness, and receiving a blushing 
cheek. Carey tells us, that 
-* In Eden’s blissful bowers, 
Young Eve surveyed her countless flowers ; 
An opening rose, of purest white, 
She marked with eye that beamed delight; 
Its leaves she kissed and straight it drew 
From Beauty’s lip the vermeil hue.’ 
Herrick, gives a later origin to the bud with rosy 
hue. 
-‘ As Cupid danced among 
The gods, he down the nectar flung; 
TVhich on the white rose being shed 
Made it forever after red. 
Mr. Phillips, in his ‘ S3 7 lvaFlorifera,’narrates the 
following pretty anecdote of the birth of the rose. 
1 Flora having found the corpse of a favorite nymph, 
whoso beauty of person was only surpassed by the 
purity of her heart and chastity of her mind, 
resolved to raise a plant from the precious remains 
of this daughter of the Dryads; for which purpose 
she begged the assistance of Venus and the Graces, 
as well as of all the deities that preside over gar¬ 
dens, to assist in the transformation of the nymph 
into a flower, that was to be by them proclaimed 
queen of all the vegetable beauties.’ 
The ceremony was attended by the Zephyrs, 
who cleared the atmosphere, in order that Apollo 
might bless the new-created progeny by his beams. 
Bacchus supplied rivers of nectar to nourish it; 
