Montour American. (Danville, Pa.) 1866-1920, 1904-08-04
ANTIQUITY OF THE ROSE.
The Flower Goes Back Beyond the
Most Ancient RecOrds

The Flower Goes Back Beyond the
Most Ancient Records.
The royal rose has pedigree to
shame any other queen, IL Is so long,
so full of enchanting turns and twists
and so delightfully."- numbered with
myth, fable and history. She is in
way q paradox, since, although by ap-
pearance and perfume the most trop-
ical of blossoms she is yet by nativity
flower of north temperate latitudes.
Her habitat Is bounded north and
south, roughly speaking, by the twen-
tieth and the seventeen parallels. She
grows Wild all over Europe, In Africa
as low as Abyssinia, In Asia to and
through India and In North America to
the edge of Mexico.
Most wild roses are single, yet Pliny
mentions double ones, among them the
hundred leaf and Herodotus says,
Macedonia has gardens OF Midas, with
roses Of sixty petals breathing out
delightful perfume" Whoever has
read Roman history must recall the
roses Of Paestum, which bloomed
twice year. Notwithstanding this
Romes favorite rose was the Hundred
Leaf. 1t followed the eagles and the
legions wherever they went and grows
today over three parts Of the Roman
world, vital record Of that old time
occupation.
Etymologically rose is from the
Celtic rhodd or rhudd, red" also the
root Of "ruddy." The Greek name,
rhodon, has the same meaning. So
have most rose names In any language.
Botanically the flower gives name TO
the great natural order rosaceae. Arti-
ficially II Is classed under pOlygoniae,
the many angled. The Wild forms
have always feshy, urn or pitcher
shaped calyxes, twenty or more sta
mems, five petals and five sepals. The
sepals show q bit of natures most
cunning work. Two of them are beard
ed at both edges, two without boards
and the fifth bearded at one edge and
straight along the other. Thus they
inclose the bud with a bearded over
lap along every seam, good to repel
moisture and to put TO rout every In
trusive creeping thing.
Rose cultures beginning goes back
beyond records. The flower is men
toned in the earliest Coptic manu-
scripts. India's traditions take the
rose to the times OF the gods on earth.
Egypt had roses, wild and tame, before
the Roman occupation made II In a
way Rome's commercial rose garden.
Yet, curiously enough, there is no ref
erence to the flower in painting, sculp-
ture or hierOglyphics. Japan In our
time parallels Egypt Roses flourish
there, but do not serve as a motif for
artists. There is this further likeness
neither Egypt nor Japan has rose
song or love song proper, 80 II may
well be that madam the rose is aveng-
ed for the slight.
The Jews. returning from the Baby
lonish captivity, took with them a
recompense of roses. Semiramis, with
the world at her feet, found her chief
Joy In bower Of roses. Mohammed
turned back from Damascus after
viewing 1t encircled with rose gardens.
1T Is too delightful. A man can have
but one paradise" said the prophet.
Damascus lies In the heart of Syria,
whose name some geographers derive
from seri, meaning wild rose, and
wild roses are abundant there. The
damask roses OF our gardens go back
to Damascus. They were brought
from II at the time of the crusades.
although exactly when or By whom
nobody can certainly say.-Martha Nc
Culloch- Williams in Success.