Roses.

Waikato Times, Volume X, Issue 664, 23 September 1876, Page 5 (Supplement)

Roses.

A MODERirF liking for roses a<? good things in thoir places has been justly considered one of the results of home education which are least open to objection. It is however, by no mean's general among persons who have taken so promient a part in public life as to have attracted the attention of history; and who share with the blaek-beetlea positive distaste for the rose. The famous Chevalier de Guise could not smell a rose without feeling uncomfortable ; and Venieri, one of the Doges of Venice, suffered under the same disqualification for the pursuits of gardening. Anne, of Austria, wife of Louis XIIL, could not even look at a rose in a painting without being seized with tantrums. Nevertheless many people who are willing as a rule to take examples from the great have persisted in entertaining friendly sentiments towards this flower, and every time that the spring and early summer bring back the pretty vegetable they fall to telling one another all they know about it. In the East-there is still a belief that the first rose was formed by a tear of the prophet Mahomet, but nations of ,'mor© cop] and disciplined imagination have sometimes admitted that its origin is most in obscurity. Roses were used very early in history among the most potent ingredients of love philters. They seem to .have been imported by the Romans for Egypt until the reign of Domitian. Antiochus slept upon a bed of rose-leaves. Mark Antony begged that Cleopatra would cover his tomb with these, flowers, and ' mea rosa was a favourite term of endearment among Roman lovers, ai who should say • mon chou' (my cabbage) now-a-days in Prance. Homer hai adorned the shield of Achilles and the heh met of Hector with roses. Among th< Greeks it was a custom to leave bequest! for the maintainance of sepulchral rosegardens over the grave ol the testator; aad at Torcallo, near Venice, an inscription may still be seen which shows that this fashion was adopted in Italy. 1% Stock's collection of engravings on stonf there is a beautieful design cut in garnei It reprosents a,butterfly settling on a rost and it is supposed to commemorate tli death of ayoung girl. In Turkey, a stonf rose is often sculptured abote the grar« of unmarried women. A charming bairelief on the tomb of Mdme. dehla Lire, who died at the age of - twenty-one, represents Time mowing hig cose with a scythe. According to Indian lifiytholory Pagodasiri, one of the wives ol Vishnu, was found in a rose. Zorotfeter is said to have made a rose tree spring out of the earth and bud and blossom in me presence of Dgsius, who htd called upon him to perform a miracle. In Babylon a preparation of shoe-leather was much esteemed when it' kad. been impregnated with the scent of T o»e»; and Abdulkari, an eminent TArk, who wanted to live there, being 1 made aware of this fact, discovered an ingenious way to profit by, it. In reply to/ A*, dcmiind which he had made for fcfce. freedom of the city theßabylonians sentfliim a bowl brimful of water, to signify tbit there was no room among them foruati intruder. Abdulkari placed a rosefoaf on the surface of the water without' spilling a drop of it, and, having thui indicated (.hat he might be received' without making a mess, he obtained the object of his denire. Charlemagne recommended the cultiva tion of the rose m his • ' Capitulation.' The Persians of Shiraz stop their wine-boi ties with roses, which give the wine a pleasing smell ; and during the festival of Abri zan, which takes place during the equinox, Persian ladies throw roses at eaoh other when they pay visits. At Rome it was the pract ice of the Church to bless the rose on a special day «et apart, which was called Rose Sunday, The custom of. blessing the golden rose seems to-hatre begun in the eleveathi-or twelfth century, The>ben edichon wa& pronounced with particular solemnity on the fourth Sunday] in Lent, and the golden rose thus consecrated was given as a mark of the So verigaToja tiff's favour to some prince or princess. Alexander HI, who had been received with great honour during a journey which he made in France, sent the golden rose to Louis the Young as a sort of graceful compliment. Subsequently the gi'vingof the golden rose became an authoritative act, by which the Pope officially recognised the rights of Christian Sovereigns. Thus Urban Y. gave- the golden rose to Joan, Queen of Sicily, in 1368, thereby preferring her over the King of Cyprus. Henry VIII. of England received a golden rose both from Julius 11. , and frofax Leo X. Towards the close of the last o»»tury the golden rose appears tfco have been given almost indiscriminately to any travelling prince who would pay *fum equivalent to about; £400 in ■ fees for to , * la one of the booJt.'i attributed to Solo.

men eternal wisdom is compared to the plantations of rose-trees at Jericho. Princess Nourmabal, the most lovely lady in the harem of Great' Mogul, had a canal filled with rose-water, and rowed about on itjwith her august consort. The heat of the sun diaengaged the essential oil troin the water, and their Majesties having observed the fact, invenied otto of roses. The Emperor Heliogabalns filled a fishpond with rose-water ; it is nowhere said whether the fishes approved of this proceeding. When the Soldkn s!<>.lttdin, who had so much trouble with hard-fisted English King Kichard and his turbulent Chriatain friendi, took Jurrntlem in 1188 he would not entfr the Temple, which he profanely called a mosque, till he had had itt walls waahed with rose-water ; and Stnut assures us that fire hundred camels , wer# no more than sufficient to carry the puryfying liquid. Also, after the taking of Constantinople by Mahoment 11. in 1455, the chnrch of St. Sophia was solemnly purified with rose-water before it wat converted into a mosque. The high priest of the Hebrews wore a crown of roses when he offered up certain sacrifices under the Mosaic dispensation ; and it was, perhaps in remembrance of this fact that the Synod of Ni*mes, which was held in the third century.enjoined •vefy Jew to wear a rose on his breast aa a distinguishing mark of inferiority. In many countri.os the Jews still celebrated the fe«tiT d i o f Easter Flowers, during which Voey ornament their lampi, chande»er rf, and beds with roses. Thus it hapthat these iowers were hateful to the early Christians, and are often c >ndemmed in the writings of the Farthers who professed that they could not understand that pious people could think with equanimity ofroses whentheyremerabered the crown of thorns ; afterwards this hostile feeling ssema to have died out. When Marie Antoinette passed through Nancy on her way to b« married with Louis XVI, the ladies of Lorraigne prepared her a bed strewed with roses. In the Middle Ages roses were held so precious in France that a Boyal license waa necesary to grow them.— [Pall Wai) Gazette.