ls, and the
inference is that the hint was then well understood.

There was also an obvious meaning in the adoption by the Jacobites of
this flower as the emblem of the Pretender, to whose service they were
secretly sworn. It was the white rose that was especially affected by
the Stuarts, and the Pretender's birthday, the 10th of June, was for
long known as 'White Rose Day,' much as 'Primrose Day' is now definitely
associated with the late Lord Beaconsfield. The story of the Wars of the
Roses is, of course, known to everybody, and how, in consequence of
these feuds, the rose became the emblem of England, as the thistle is of
Scotland, and the shamrock of Ireland.

In the East there is even more of poetic significance attached to the
rose than with us. It is related of Sadi, the Persian poet, that, when a
slave, he earned his freedom by the adroit use of the flower. One day he
presented a rose to his master, with the remark, made with all humility,
'Do good to thy servant whilst thou hast the power, for the season of
power is often as transient as the duration of this flower.' This was in
allusion to the Eastern fancy, which makes the white rose the emblem of
life--transient and uncertain. In Persia they have a festival called
'The Feast of the Roses,' which lasts during the blooming of the
flowers. One of their great works is called The Garden of Roses, and in
all their poems and tales they closely associate the rose with the
bulbul or nightingale. The belief is that the bird derives his melody
from the beauteous flower, and they say, 'You may place a handful of
fragrant herbs and flowers before the nightingale, but he wants nothing
more than the odour of his beloved rose.'

Thomas Moore seizes, with happy effect, on this legend in Lalla Rookh,
which poem, indeed, is redolent of roses. But poetry generally is as
full of the rose as the rose is of poetry, and it would take a volume to
deal adequately with all the fancies and superstitious associations of
the queen of flowers. Before quitting the subject, however, we should
not overlook the Oriental traditions of how the rose received its
various colours. It is said that when Mohammed was journeying to heaven,
the sweat which fell from his forehead produced white roses, and that
which fell from Al Borak produced yellow roses. But an older tradition
is given by Sir John Mandeville. It is that of Zillah, the beauteous
maiden of Bethlehem, who, being falsely accused, was c