6 
INTRODUCTION. 
To paint this universal emblem of delicate splendor in its own hues, 
the pencil should be dipped in the tints of Aurora, when arising amidst 
her aerial glory. Human art can neither color nor describe so fair a 
flower. Yenus herself feels a rival in the Rose, whose beauty is com¬ 
posed of all that is exquisite and graceful. It has been made the 
symbol of sentiments as opposite as various. Piety seized it to deco¬ 
rate the temples, while Love expressed its tenderness by wreaths; and 
Jollity revelled adorned with crowns of roses. Grief strews it on the 
tomb, and Luxury spreads it on the couch. It is mingled with our 
tears, and spread in our gayest walks; in epitaphs, it expresses youth¬ 
ful modesty and chastity, while in the songs of the Bacchanalians 
their god is compared to this flower. The beauty of the morning is 
allegorically represented by it, and Aurora is depictured strewing 
roses before the chariot of Phoebus: 
u When morning paints the orient skies, 
Her fingers burn with roseate dyes.” 
The Rose is thought to have given name to the Holy Land where 
Solomon sang its praises, as Syria appears to be derived from Suri, a 
beautiful and delicate species of Rose, for which that country has al¬ 
ways been famous; and hence called Suristan , or the “ Land of Roses.” 
The island of Rhodes owes its name to the prodigious quantity of 
roses which formerly grew upon its soil. 
Of the birth of the Rose, it is related in fable, that Flora having 
found the corpse of a favorite Nymph, whose 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 Yenus 
and the Graces, as well as of all the deities that preside over gardens, 
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, and Yertumnus 
poured his choicest perfumes over the plant. When the metamor¬ 
phosis was complete, Pomona strewed her fruit over the young 
branches, which were then crowned by Flora with a diadem, that had 
been purposely prepared by the celestials to distinguish this Queen of 
lowers. 
