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DUST ON AQUARIA.-Would it not be better to prevent the dust getting into an aquarium than adopting any of the ingenious (?) plans which some of your correspondents have suggested to get rid of it after it has got there? The way I do it is by keeping one, two, or more pieces of glass (according to the size of the vessel) on the top of the tank, which not only effectually keep out dust, but also prevent any loss of water by evaporation, and the escape of any of the live-stock.-Geo. Abbott.

DOUBLE ORANGES.-Oranges such as are mentioned by your correspondent H. H. (p. 118) are not of unfrequent occurrence, and originate in all probability from the formation of a second row of carnels within and above the first. In those instances where the latter do not completely close over the supernumerary organs, but leave them more or less exposed, the nature of the case is obvious. H. H. will find references to similar fruits in "Trans. Linn. Soc.," vol. xxiii. p. 366, and specially in a paper of M. Clos in the fifth series of "Annales des Sciences Naturelles,' the t. iii.,

p. 312.-M. T. M.

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BOOK WANTED.-I should be very glad if any

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delivery of public lectures on natural history. In one of his popular discourses on jelly-fishes, delivered in a small town in Scotland, he had been demonstrating to the audience how very few grains of solid matter a cartload of medusæ would contain, and how useless it would be to distribute these animals over the land as manure. At the close of the discourse, a canny farmer stepped up to the platform and tendered his thanks for the hint, for at considerable expense he had been in the constant habit of collecting and distributing myriads of these creatures, under the impression that his crops would be improved by their presence.-Dr. Cobbold's New Entozoic Malady."

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EXCHANGE OF SLIDES.-The Quekett Microscopical Club has just issued the following rules for the exchange of slides :

I. That all slides be deposited with the Exchange Committee.

II. That the slides be classified by the Committee into sections, numbered according to quality. The first section to be a special class for rare specimens, the value of which will be determined by the Exchange Committee.

reader of SCIENCE-GOSSIP could inform me where III. Members to select from the class in which

I could meet with a copy of Witham's "On the Internal Structure of Fossil Vegetables of the Carboniferous and Oolitic Periods." I believe the work is out of print, but some of the readers of the GOSSIP may know of a second-hand copy.-John Butterworth.

GNAT BITES.-As there is the probability of a large supply of gnats this summer, can you or any of your readers furnish a remedy for their very troublesome, and to me very painful bites?-D. G.

The

FARO APOPHYLLITE. Your correspondent A. S. (in SCIENCE-GOSSIP of May, 1867,) will perhaps find the following information sufficient. mineral known as Apophyllite ichthyophthalmite albine belongs to the zoolitic series, but differs from other zoolites in its chemical constitution, the silicate of lime taking the place of the silicate of alumina. It consists chemically of a double silicate of potash, with eight equivalents of silicate of lime, and sixteen equivalents of water. Its specific gravity is 2-3 to 2:46; the degree of hardness, 45 to 5 (the diamond being 10). Acids easily decompose it, and it fuses readily with the blowpipe, colouring the flame a yellow-red, and gives off water. It crystallizes in right square prisms, generally with truncation of the angles, or quadrate pyramids, and more rarely in quadrate tables with truncate angles or foliated masses. In colour it varies from a vitreous transparency to rose-red and brown. Apophyllite is found at Andreasberg, in the Harz Mountains, of a rose colour; in the Faroe Isles colourless. The tabular form, or ichthyophthalmite (fishes'-eyes stone) is found in the Fassathal, South Tyrol. A variety of Apophyllite called tesselite or tesselated Apophyllite, when cut in thin plates transversely to the axis, appears when polarized to consist of nine crystals, contained within a number of parallel veins or plates. The central crystal has only one axis, and no double refraction, the other two. (See "Pereira on Polarized Light.")-F. Kitton, Norwich.

THE VALUE OF SCIENTIFIC KNOWLEDGE.-The late Edward Forbes was in the habit of relating an excellent anecdote illustrating the practical advantages which the public sometimes derive from the

IV.

their slides are placed, after the ordinary meetings of the club.

Members may leave the selection to the Exchange Committee, if they prefer it.

V. Slides once exchanged cannot be exchanged

again.

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Note. As much inconvenience frequently arises from the breakage of slides in transmission through the post, the following method is recommended:Pack the slides in a small wooden box, which can be obtained of any optician, tie it securely with string, and attach a slip of parchment to one end, sufficiently large to receive the postage stamps, address, and local Post-office stamps during transmission. If paper be used as a wrapper to the box, the colour should be black. When twelve or more slides are sent, they should be packed in a racked box, and forwarded by railway carriage prepaid.

BLACK SURFACE.-What is the nature of the solution ordinarily in use by opticians to give a dead black surface? Lamp-black mixed with shelllac dissolved in alcohol would give a glossy black.

THE AMERICAN NATURALIST.-The Essex Institute (Salem, Mass., U.S.), the Microscopical section of which is one of the most vigorous and healthy in the United States, has just commenced the publication of a monthly journal called The American Naturalist, of fifty-six octavo pages, at a little less than eighteen-pence per single number. Such a medium was wanted by our transatlantic friends, and we wish it success.

SILKWORM GUT.-The silk in the reservoirs (of the silkworm) is sometimes used in commerce, being sold under the name of "gut." The process of obtaining the gut is very simple; it consists in preparing worms ready to spin by putting them in strong vinegar for eighteen hours; a transverse opening is then carefully made on the under side and about the middle of the body, taking care not to injure the silk reservoirs, which are very distinct. The glands, or reservoirs, are then taken out and stretched parallel to each other on a board, and dried in the shade for several days.-The American Naturalist.

GREAT AQUARIUMS are numerically increasing in France. One was long since established by Mr. W. A. Lloyd in the Jardin d'Acclimatation, Bois de Boulogne, Paris. Another has been some time opened in the Boulevard Montmartre. A freshwater aquarium is already opened in the Park of the Exposition of 1867, and a marine aquarium of equal size is in process of construction. There is, moreover, one at Boulogne, and another at Arcachon.

MICE AND COCKROACHES.-Although I by no means desire to propound any theory on the subject, I have twice observed a similar occurrence to that mentioned in a recent number of SCIENCE-GOSSIP. We had plenty of mice, but a cockroach was seldom to be seen. A cat was introduced into the establishment to reduce the numbers of the mice, which she did effectually, but now that there are no mice cockroaches appear in legions. The same thing has been observed by me in two separate houses in which I have resided during the past five years. There is no reason for affirming or denying that mice will eat cockroaches. We can only state factsmine in corroboration of others, and look to future investigation and experience to develop the cause.-A. C.

MICE AND COCKROACHES.-In reply to the query of your correspondent, "Whether any antagonism exists between the domestic mouse (Mus musculus) and the cockroach (Blatta molendinaria, or orientalis)," my experience leads me to answer in the negative; and as one fact is worth more than a thousand theories, I will furnish him with what I consider a conclusive instance. A kitchen in my house has been much infested with cockroaches for years, in common with the crickets (Acheta or Gryllus domesticus), who are also tenants, and live in the utmost harmony with their more numerous neighbours. They are night insects, or lucifuge. The floor at dark has been literally alive with them. During the same period the mice, although not in undisturbed possession, or allowed to "reign supreme," have had the range of the premises, and have certainly defied all attempts to extirpate them in kitchen and elsewhere. I am entirely unable to account for the alternate disappearance and reappearance of these

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pests, as recounted by your correspondent, but if it be a fact in natural history that the domestic mouse devours insects, I am quite unaware of it, although of course every one knows that his congener of the harvest-field (Mus messorius) is insectivorous as well as graminivorous. In this case, however, I have never heard that his ambition leads him to aspire to larger or higher game than the bluebottle fly (Musca carnivora). On one occasion, in order to clear the place of the cockroaches, two hedgehogs (Erinaceus Europaeus) were introduced, but the animals were the reverse of abstemious, and in the height of their gluttony (in this respect apiciuslike) gorged themselves so much that they absolutely died from indigestion, the effect of overloaded stomachs; otherwise I believe they would have effectually done the work allotted to them.-Henry W. T. Ellis, Crowle.

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WHICH BANGOR ?-In L. Lane Clarke's "Objects for the Microscope," p. 48, under the head of "Diatoms of Guano," the infusorial earth of Bangor, U.S., is mentioned as very fine. Now, Bangor is in our State, but its diatoms are new to us here. cannot imagine where it is, or what the deposit may be, unless it be intended to mean the fossil foraminifera which are to be obtained sparingly from the marine clays which occur on the banks of our rivers. Also where is Wreatham, U.S., given in the same list? There is a town named Wrentham in Massachusetts, which has a good many ponds, &c., where diatoms might be deposited, but I do not know of any celebrity obtained by, this locality.-E. C. B., Portland, Maine, U.S.

[Can any one help our correspondent ?—ED.]

BAILLON'S CRAKE.-I have in my possession a very beautiful specimen of Baillon's Crake, a female bird, weighing only three-quarters of an ounce, which was caught by a cat near St. Leonards-onSea on the 12th of April. It does not appear to have been seen in this neighbourhood before.-John Bissenden.

MEERSCHAUM.-It may appear surprising that so little is written on this extraordinary article, for its use is daily becoming more apparent. Doubtless many of your valuable correspondents indulge in a pipe-and a meerschaum. Lord Brougham, Tennyson, Thomas Miller, and a host of learned and distinguished men smoke; and it is stated that Tennyson may be seen with his large meerschaum, in his walks, frequently during the summer months, culling over some of his brilliant ebullitions. Dr. E. D. Clarke may be accepted as a reliable authority, and he states that before the capture of the Crimea this substance was a considerable article of commerce with Constantinople. It was sold to German merchants for the making of those beautiful pipes which after long smoking were sold for forty and fifty pounds of our money. In Natolia, at the present day, 1,000 hands are employed in its manufacturing process, and in Vienna, meerschaum pipes, from their artistic designs, realize 100 guineas. It appears all authorities agree as to its being classified as a mineral, but its exact nature is not precisely known; and as considerable ignorance prevails amongst the English of its nature, formation, and properties, I again repeat my question for answers by your valuable contributors "What is meerschaum, and how is it identified when manufactured into smoking pipes?"-C. M.

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NOTICES TO CORRESPONDENTS.

T. S. K.-It is not our province to name packets of objects; we really cannot afford the time to do for others what, with a little care, they could do for themselves. No. 1 is Dædalea quercina.

E. M. H.-No. 1. Yes! it will do so. 2. The only book for a beginner is Lindsay's "British Lichens," Routledge & Co. 3. It is impossible to say.

G. G.-The fungus is Polyporus versicolor.

A. (Dartmouth) could name his Corallines with the aid of Johnstone's "Zoophytes," published by Van Voorst. His No. 2 is Corallina officinalis.

H. H. (Fairy Villa).-It is not very easy to discover what you require. If we understand you correctly, it is that you desire to know just those problems which are continually puzzling men of science, and for the discussion of which our columns are unsuited.

J. G. desires some certain method of ridding his house of cockroaches. We have heard of many remedies, but never had any occasion for making the experiment. See SCIENCEGOSSIP, 1865, pp. 42, 66.

L. A. G.-Is it the thread-worm (Gordius aquaticus)? Sce SCIENCE-GOSSIP, 1865, pp. 107, 197.

R. T. A.-The slide contained no organic form whatever. F. S. F. (Plymouth).-We regret that we can give no information of the process beyond the extract quoted.

W. W.-R. W.-We never attempt to name objects from description only.

THE NIGHTINGALE.-SCIENCE-GOSSIP, bottom of page 112, for "March," in both instances read “ April."-L. S.

J. L.-J. H. W.-Messrs. Hooper & Co., Covent Garden, or Mr. Sim, of Foot's Cray, Kent, or any other nurseryman growing ferns extensively, would furnish the prices of any of the ferns named in the article alluded to, upon application by letter enclosing stamp.

W. W. S.-Mix glycerine and spirit, says "Davis on Mounting," p. 17. We use gum-tragacanth, mixed with gumarabic or calcined starch, sometimes called British gum.

W. D. R.-No book containing descriptions of the species of British Coleoptera has been published since "Stephens' Manual," and that, of course, is now very imperfect.

R. W.-There is no cheap work on Diatoms. We have given in SCIENCE-GOSSIP instructions for mounting crystals. G. L.-You will find answers to all your queries in "Davis on Mounting," &c., price half-a-crown.

B. L. W.-We cannot inform you; probably the result of a wound.

J. G. T.-Patience and plenty of water works wonders.
D. S.-It is sometimes called the "great saw-fly."

J. B. Many larger specimens. It might possibly have occupied the matrix of a femoral bone, but this is speculation. LIZZIE should remember how much easier it is to ask questions than to answer them.

W. F. We have already given full instructions for cleaning Fossil Diatomaceæ.

E. F. M.-Very like a "canard."

S. C. surely must have made a mistake. owl, and not the Snowy owl?

Was it the Barn

E. C. J.-White's "Popular History of the Crustacea." London: Routledge. Price 7s. 6d. The malformation of the daisy is not uncommon.

BRITISH INSECTS.-The printed lists of British Insects, entitled "A Catalogue of British Insects in all the Orders," by the Rev. F. O. Morris, B.A., is at length published.

MRS. K.-T. H.-A. Dartmouth.-D. W.-W. R.-It is impossible for us to name all the specimens of mosses, lichens, zoophytes, &c., which are continually sent us, notwithstanding our repeated protests, in parcels of from six to twelve species from a single correspondent. Henceforth, therefore, whatever number may be sent, we shall only name one out of each packet.

W. D.-F. W.-We only insert in our exchange list objects of Natural History for which other like objects are required. Other exchanges may be inserted as advertisements, the charge for which may be learnt from the Publisher.

W. F. H.-Any water-mites are desired. The mollusc is a common species-Cyclostoma elegans.

W. R.-No. 1 is Climacium dendroides.

D. W. Skye.-No. 8, Mercurialis perennis.

H. M. (Birmingham).-It is Julus terrestris, not an inhabitant of the water, but having got into the spout of the pump came out with the water.

W. M.-Please to refer to page 96 of SCIENCE-GOSSIP. It is carelessness to ask a question which has only just been answered in two consecutive numbers.

J. S. K.-No English work contains coloured figures of all the British Lepidoptera. The nearest approach is Wood's Index Entomologicus. Nor is there a work in which British Lichens are all figured. For British Mosses, see Wilson's Bryologia Britannica."

F. H.-We really know of no book "fuller" than that named. Its want can only be supplied by several books in different branches.

B. (Manchester).-Any large bottle warehouse, or dealer in druggists' sundries, in London. Surely also in Manchester or Liverpool such things can be obtained. If not, the dimensions must be sent to some friend in London, who may call upon us for advice.

J. B. S.-Davis on Mounting Microscopic Objects, page 80. P. P, who inquired in March number for Bermuda Earth, will please to furnish name and address to the Editor. QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF MICROSCOPICAL SCIENCE.-Vol. VII., for 1859, wanted. A good price will be given. Address, the Editor of SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

C. D. H.-Unfortunately your plant was too much shrivelled to determine with certainty.

B. T.-No. 1 is Scatophaga stercoraria (Order, Diptera). No. 2 is Chrysopa perla (Order, Neuroptera).-F. W. DEODARA.-R. B. states that the age of the tree alluded to in our last is only thirty years.

EXCHANGES.

SCHISTOSTEGA in fine fruit, and Trichostomum flarovirens, for Seligeria or Splachnee.-E. M. Holmes, 2, Arundelcrescent, Plymouth.

BRITISH BIRDS' SKINS and eggs for other British birds' eggs. Lists to John M. Hartley, 6. Cliff-terrace, Leeds.

C. ROLPHI, C. laminata, B. montanus, and other shells, for British or foreign species.-J. W. Taylor, 7, Freehold-street, Leeds.

PLANORBIS GLABER.-This rare fresh-water shell, for good microscopical material.-T. Sharp, Ackworth, near Pontefract.

PLEISTOCENE FOSSILS (20) from Maine, U.S., in exchange for British fossils or British marine shells.-E. C. B., care of Editor of SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

MARINE SHELLS (55) from Maine, U.S., in exchange for an equal collection of British marine shells or British fossils. -E. C. B., care of Editor of SCIENCE-Gossip.

DIATOMACEOUS EARTH (unmounted) from Monmouth, Maine, U.S., in exchange for good mounted diatoms or desmids.-E. C. B., care of Editor of SCIENCE GOSSIP.

BRITISH FERNS.-Dried fronds for those of other species. -For lists, address H. R. F. C., Foley Cottage, Redlard, Bristol.

MERIDION CIRCULARE (unmounted) for mounted objects. -W. Swinburn, 5, Rosemary-lane, Whitehaven. TRIPHOSA CERVINATA for other rare species.-C. R. Doward, 41, Copenhagen-street, Worcester. ENGLISH AND FOREIGN SHELLS for British marine.-For lists, address, Beta, Post Office, South Shields.

SANGUINARIA CANADENSIS, sections of root, for stamped and directed envelope.-B. Taylor, 57, Lowther-street, Whitehaven.

ORCHIDS, or other Botanical specimens, wanted for American plants.-W. W. Denslow, Post Office Station, N., New York City, U.S.

MOSSES (unmounted), wanted for Toome-bridge Earth or mounted objects.-E. W., 49, Tollington-road, Holloway, N.

BOOKS RECEIVED.

"Contributions to Natural History," by a Rural D.D. Edinburgh and London: Blackwood & Sons, 1867.

"A Catalogue of British Insects in all the Orders," by the Rev. F. O. Morris, B.A., London, 1867.

"The Laboratory." No. 1 to 5. London: James Firth. "Instructions for the Promut Treatment of Accidents," in a sheet. Illustrated. Lo don: W H. Collingridge. "Elementi per lo stu io delle Desmidiaceæ Italiche di Guiseppe de Notaris." Genova, 1867.

"Cronaca della Briologia Italiana per G. de Notaris." Part II. Genova, 1867

"Neue Infusorien im Seeaquarium," von Dr. Ferdinand Cohn, in Breslau.

"At Home in the Wilderness," by The Wanderer. London : Robert Hardwicke, 1867.

COMMUNICATIONS RECEIVED.-J.-F. S. F.-E. F.-L. S.F. S.-F.A. C.-H. W.-P. B. B.-R. H.-W.D.-J. L.-R. T.A. -J. S.-W. D. R.-E. M. H.-W. V. A.-H. M. G.-G. S.C. D. H.-W. F. H.-C. S. P. P. (Moulmein).-J. M. H.W. W.-E. C. B.-J. S. T.-W. W. S.-E. St. J. F.-E. K.A. S.-T. P. B.-T. S. P.-A. W. (Walograve).-R. G.E. G. K.-J. B.-D. G.-D. S.-E. J. S.-J. G. T.-J. W. S. S. F. C.-H. R.-B. L. WJ. H. F.-R W.-J. W. T. T. H. Jun.-F. A. A.-W. D. (Wigton) -J. G. B.-A. W T. S. K.-J. A.-G L.-F. B.-R 8.-F. K.-H. R. W.E. T. S.-E. C. J.-J. H. W.-C. R. D.-C. P.-A. J.-D. W. -W. F. H.-S. F. C.-S. D.-M. T. M.-F. W.-W. S.-J. B. -E. B.-F. T.-J. C. D.-J. B.-G. A.-T. W. W. S.-W. R. -G. N.-H. R. F. C.-R. M. C.-T. A.-G. B.-F. H.-B. (Manchester).-W. P.-H. H. K.-S. L. B.-C. M.-J. S K. -J. B. S.-J. B. W.-W. M.-H. W. T. E.-B. 1-R. B.W. W. 8.-J. B.-C. D.-F. K.-R. B.- F. W.-R. H. J.G. E.-R. C. C. L.-E. W.-W. P.-A. M. E.

THE FEAST OF ROSES.

Crop the gay rose's vermeil bloom

And waft its spoils, a sweet perfume

In incense to the skies.

OGILVIE.

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F all the flowers that have ever adorned the face of the earth none has furnished to the poet more delicate similes than the Rose. The poet in return

has supplied the romance of its birth. Sir John Maundeville gives one legend of Christian origin; the Mahometans have another. Writing of Bethlehem, Sir John records that a fair maiden was blamed with wrong, and slandered, and was condemned to be burnt at that place, and as the fire began to burn about her, she made her prayers, that as truly as she was not guilty it might be made known to all men; and that thereafter she entered into the fire, and immediately the fire was extinguished, and the faggots that were burning became red rose-bushes, and those that were not kindled became white rosebushes, full of roses. And these were the first rose-trees and roses, both white and red, that ever any man saw. On the other hand, it is reported that the Turk can by no means endure to see the leaves of roses fall to the ground, because that some of them have dreamed that the first or most ancient rose did spring of the blood of Venus; and others of the Mahometans say that it sprang of the sweat of Mahomet. If we are to believe the said poets, this flower is beloved of the gods as well as men, for Cupid was by them adorned with a wreath of roses.

No. 31.

The rose is the honor and beautie of flowers,
The rose is the care and the love of the spring,
The rose is the pleasure of th' 'eavenly powres,
The boy of faire Venus, Cythera's darling,
Doth wrap his head round with garlands of rose,
When to the daunces of the Graces he goes.

Anacreon.

Whether the roses of Abraham were believed by the Ghebers to be the first that had bloomed on earth, or not, the romance deserves remembrance in company with those we have already narrated. "The Ghebers believe," says Tavernier, "that when Abraham, their great prophet, was thrown into the fire, by order of Nimrod, the flame turned instantly into a bed of roses, where the child sweetly reposed." This legend is alluded to in "Lalla Rookh" by the lines,

When pitying heaven to roses turned,
The death flames that beneath him burned.

Old Gerarde, in his "Herbal," apologizes for the company in which he placed such an august flower as the Rose, in his own quaint style. "The plant of roses, though it be a shrub full of prickles, yet it had beene more fit and convenient to have placed it with the most glorious flowers of the worlde, than to insert the same among base and thorny shrubs; for the Rose doth deserve the chiefest and most principal place among all flowers whatsoever, being not only esteemed for his beautie, vertues, and his fragrant and odoriferous smell, but also because it is the honor and ornament of our English scepter, as by the conjunction appeereth in the uniting of those two most royal houses of Lancaster and York."

The Oriental poets especially gave the preference to the Rose above all other flowers. The two greatest of the Persian poets, Hafiz and

H

Sadi, filled their writings with the odour of

roses,

Hafiz loves, like Philomel,

With the darling rose to dwell. Sadi was the author of "Gulistan," which means "garden of roses;" for "gul" is, in more than one of the Oriental languages, the name of the Rose. The following is the motive which the author assigns for having written this poem :-"On the first day of the month of May I resolved with a friend to pass the night in my garden. The ground was enamelled with flowers, the sky was lighted with brilliant stars; the nightingale sang its sweetest melodies, perched on the highest branches; the dew-drops hung on the rose, like tears on the cheek of an angry beauty; the parterre was covered with hyacinths of a thousand hues, among which meandered a limpid stream. When morning came, my friend gathered roses, basilisks, and hyacinths, and placed them in the folds of his garments; but I said to him, Throw these away, for I am going to compose a Gulistan' (Garden of Roses) which will last for eternity, whilst your flowers will live but a day.'

Roses were known to the ancient Greeks and Romans. Herodotus writes of roses in the garden of Midas, the son of Gordius, in Phrygia, that had sixty leaves, which grew of themselves, and had a more agreeable fragrance than all the rest. The Romans employed them at their feasts. Lucullus expended fabulous sums, in order to be able to have them at all seasons. In the time of the Republic people used not to be satisfied unless their cups of Falernian wine were swimming with roses.

"The Spartan soldiers, after the battle of Cirra, were so fastidious as to refuse to drink any wine that was not perfumed with roses. At the Regatta of Baix, the whole surface of the Lucrine Sea used to be strewn with this flower. In some of his banquetings, Nero caused showers of the rose to be rained down upon his guests from an aperture in the ceiling. Heliogabalus carried this to such an insane length as to cause the suffocation of several of his guests, who could not extricate themselves from the heaps of flowers. The Sybarites used to sleep upon beds that were stuffed with rose-leaves. The tyrant Dionysius had couches stuffed with roses, on which he lounged at his revels. Verres would travel in a litter, reclining on a mattress stuffed with roses. He wore, moreover, a garland of roses on his head, and another round his neck. Over the litter a thin net was drawn, with rose-leaves intertwined, whose fragrance he thus leisurely inhaled. It was a favourite luxury of Antiochus to sleep, even in winter, in a tent of gold and silk, and upon a bed of roses. Cleopatra, in the entertainment she gave in honour of Antony, spent an immense sum in roses," with which she covered the floor of her banqueting-room to the depth of an ell.

When Nero honoured the house of a Roman noble with his presence at dinner, there was something more than flowers; the host was put to an enormous expense by having his fountains flinging up rose water. While the jets were pouring out the fragrant liquid, while rose-leaves were on the ground, in the cushions on which the guests lay, hanging in garlands on their brows, and in wreaths around their necks, the couleur de rose pervaded the dinner itself, and a rose pudding challenged the appetites of the guests. To encourage digestion there was rose wine, which Heliogabalus was not only simple enough to drink, but extravagant enough to bathe in. He went even further, by having the public swimming-batlts filled with wine of roses and absinth. After breathing, wearing, eating, drinking, lying on, walking over, and sleeping upon roses, it is not wonderful that the unhappy ancient grew sick. His medical man gave him immediately a rose draught: whatever he ailed the rose was made in some fashion to enter into the remedy for his recovery. If the patient died, as he naturally would, then of him, more than of any other, it might be truly said he

Died of a rose in aromatic pain.

In almost all Oriental poetry and romance the Bulbul, or nightingale, as it is erroneously called, is associated with the rose. "You may place a hundred handfuls of fragrant herbs and flowers before the nightingale, yet he wishes not in his constant heart for more than the sweet breath of his beloved rose;" or, as Moore has expressed the same sentiment

-though rich the spot

With every flower this earth has got,
What is it to the nightingale

If there his darling rose is not?

Advantage is taken of the same belief by Lord Byron in his "Bride of Abydos," wherein Zuleika plucks a rose and offers it to Selim, seated at his feet, pleading through the simile of the nightingale's love on behalf of her own

This rose to calm my brother's cares,
A message from the Bulbul bears;
It says to-night he will prolong
For Selim's car his sweetest song;
And though his note is somewhat sad,
He'll try for once a strain more glad,
With some faint hope his altered lay
May sing these gloomy thoughts away.

And also in "The Giaour" the opening description contains a no less happy allusion to the rose as the 'sultana of the nightingale," and to the nightingale

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