the academy, the whole assembly clapped their hands, and the philosopher was admitted as a member." Madame de Genlis relates very nearly the same anecdote, but attributes it to Abdulkadri, a person celebrated among the Turks, who was desirous of residing at Babylon, where they were unwilling to receive him. The Turks themselves, matter of fact as they are, have also seen something marvelous in the beautiful and vivid tints which the hand of nature has painted on the corolla of the Rose; but their imagination, less glowing than that of the Greeks, furnished them an idea more singular than pleasing. They suppose that the Rose owed its origin to the perspiration which fell from Mahomet; for which reason they never tread upon a rose-leaf, or suffer one to lie on the ground. Meshilu, the Turkish poet, speaks of "a pavilion of roses, as the seat of pleasure raised in the garden;" of "roses like the bright cheeks of beautiful maidens;" of the time when "the plants were sick, and the rose-bud hung its thoughtful head on its bosom ;" and of the "dew, as it falls, being changed into rosewater." They also sculpture a rose on the tomb-stone of a female who dies unmarried. The early Roman Catholics have made the Rose the subject of various miraculous events-one of which is attributed to the canonized Elizabeth, Queen of Hungary. As the French author, Montalembert, relates it in his history of that queen, Elizabeth loved to carry to the poor herself, by stealth, not only money, but even food and other things which she had provided for them. She went thus loaded and on foot, by the steep and hidden paths which led from the chateau to the town, and to the cottages in the neighboring valleys. One day, when, accompanied by her favority maid, she was descending by a rough and scarcely visible path, carrying under her cloak some bread, meat, eggs, and other food, for distribution among the poor, she was suddenly met by her husband, who was returning from the chase. Astonished to see her thus bending under the weight of her burden, he said to her, "Let me see what you are carrying." At the same time he threw open the cloak, which she held, with terror, to her breast, but found, as the legend says, nothing there but some white and red roses, the most beautiful he had ever seen. D'Orbessan, in his work on the Rose, states that, in the church of Sainte-Luzanne, at Rome, is a mosaic of the time of Charlemagne, in which that prince is represented in a square mantle, and on his knees, while St. Peter is placing in his hands a standard covered with roses. Michaud, in his Biographie Universelle, speaks of Clemence Isaure, a French lady, who lived in the latter part of the 15th century. She bequeathed to the academy of Toulouse a large income, exclusively for the celebration of floral games, and for the distribution of five prizes for as many pieces of poetry. The prizes consisted of an amaranth and rose of gold, and of a violet, marigold, and lily, of silver. The will also required that every three years, on the day of the commencement of the floral games, among other ceremonies to be observed, the members of the academy should visit and spread flowers upon her tomb. Ronsard, the French poet, having gained the first prize in the floral games, received, in place of the accustomed rose, a silver image of Minerva. Mary, Queen of Scots, was so much delighted with Ronsard's beautiful poetry on the Rose, that she sent him a magnificent rose of silver, valued at £500, with this inscription :"A Ronsard. l'Apollon de la source des Muses." 2 CHAPTER II. LUXURIOUS USE OF THE ROSE. HE ancients possessed, at a very early period, the luxury of roses, and the Romans brought it to perfection by covering with beds of these flowers the couches whereon their guests were placed, and even the tables which were used for banquets; while some emperors went so far as to scatter them in the halls of their palace. At Rome, they were, at one time, brought from Egypt, in that part of the year when Italy could not produce them; but afterwards, in order to render these luxuries more easily attainable during the winter, by the leaders of the ton in that capital city of the world's empire, their gardeners found the means of producing, in green-houses warmed by means of pipes filled with hot water, an artificial temperature, which kept roses and lilies in bloom until the last of the year. Seneca declaimed, with a show of ridicule, against these improvements; but, without being discouraged by the reasoning of the philosopher, the Romans carried their green-houses to such perfection, that, at length, during the reign of Domitian, when the Egyptians 1 "Tempora subtilius pinguntur tecta coronis, (OVID, lib. v.) 2 "Non vivunt contra naturam, qui hieme concupiscunt Rosam? Fomentoque aquarum calentium, et calorum apta imitatione, bruma lilium florem vernum, exprimunt." (Seneca, epistle 122-8.) thought to pay him a splendid compliment in honor of his birthday, by sending him roses in the midst of winter, their present excited nothing but ridicule and disdain, so abundant had winter roses become at Rome, by the efforts of art. Few of the Latin poets have been more celebrated for their epigrammatic wit than Martial; and his epigram "to Cæsar, on the Winter Roses," serves to show that the culture of roses at Rome was carried to such perfection, as to make the attempts of foreign competitors subjects only for ridicule. "The ambitious inhabitants of the land watered by the Nile have sent thee, O Cæsar, the roses of winter, as a present valuable for its novelty. But the boatman of Memphis will laugh at the gardens of Pharaoh as soon as he has taken one step in thy capital city-for the spring, in its charms, and the flowers in their fragrance and beauty, equal the glory of the fields of Pastum. Wherever he wanders or casts his eyes, every street is brilliant with garlands of roses. And thou, O Nile! must now, Send us thy harvests, and we will yield to the fogs of Rome. send thee roses." By this passage it is evident that the cultivation of roses, among the ancients, was much farther advanced than is generally supposed. In another epigram Martial speaks again of roses, which were formerly seen only in the spring, but which in his time had become common during the winter. We are also but copyists of the Romans, in the cultivation of flowers in windows; for vases of every style of beauty, and filled with roses, were a frequent ornament of their windows. Martial says that a miserly patron had made him a present of a very small estate, and adds that he has a much better country place in his window. Much that illustrates the use which the ancients made of roses in their ceremonies, in their festivals, and in their domestic life, may be found in various authors, evincing still more how very common the use of them had become. Florus relates that Antiochus, king of Syria, being encamped in the island of Euboa, under woven tents of silk and gold, was not only accompanied by a band of musicians, but that he might yet more enhance his pleasures, he wished to procure roses; and although it was in the midst of winter, he caused them to be collected from every quarter. The gallants of Rome were in the habit of presenting their favorite damsels with the first roses that appeared in spring; and "Mea rosa" was an affectionate expression they often used to their betrothed. We frequently find in old Latin authors, an entire abandonment to pleasure and excessive luxury signified by such expressions as, living in the midst of roses, sleeping on roses, &c. (Vivere in rosa, dormire in rosa.) Seneca speaks of Smyndiride, the most wealthy and voluptuous of the Sybarites, who could not sleep if a single one of the rose-petals with which his bed was spread, happened to be curled. Cicero, in his "de finibus," alludes to the custom which prevailed at Rome at that time, of reclining at the table on couches covered with roses; and comparing the happiness which virtue gives, to the pleasures of luxury, says that "Regulus, in his chains, was more happy than Thorius drinking on a couch of roses and living in such a manner that one could scarcely imagine any rare and exquisite pleasure of which he did not partake." The same author, in his celebrated speech against Verres, the greatest extortioner whose name is recorded in history, reproached him not only with the outrageous robberies and cruelties which |