Excerpt from The Book of Roses
For the past two thousand years at least the Rose has held the title of the Queen of flowers, for Sappho, who lived six centuries before Christ, wrote, "If Jupiter wished to give the flowers a queen, the Rose would be their queen." And Anacreon devotes an entire ode to praises of the Rose.
"Friends! form your accents with mine, in singing the season of flowers, and the Rose of spring.
"The Rose is the sweet perfume which the mouths of the gods exhale; the joy of mortals, the loveliest ornament of the Graces in the flowery season of love, and the dearest delight of Venus.
"The Rose is the object of the songs of the poets, the favourite plant of the Muses.
"Though she wounds us with her thorns, we gather her with pleasure. What delight to hold this flower consecrated to love, and to breathe its sweet odours!
"Ah! what should we be without the Rose?
"Our poets sing of the rosy fingers of Aurora, the rosy arms of the Nymphs, the cheeks of Venus, tinted with Roses.
"The Rose is useful to the sick; she braves the duration of years; agreeable even in decay, she preserves the perfume of her youth.
"What shall I say of her origin?
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