To gather the root
on St. John's day morning at sunrise, and retain it in the house, gave
luck to the family in their undertakings, especially in those begun on
that day. Plants with _lady_ attached to their names were in ancient
times dedicated to some goddess; and in Christian times the term was
transferred to the Virgin Mary. Such plants have good qualities,
conferring protection and favour on their possessors.
From the earliest times the _Rose_ has been an emblem of silence.
_Eros_, in the Greek mythology, presents a rose to the god of silence,
and to this day _sub rosa_, or "under the rose," means the keeping of a
secret. Roses were used in very early times as a potent ingredient in
love philters. In Greece it was customary to leave bequests for the
maintenance of rose gardens, a custom which has come down to recent
times. Rose gardens were common during the middle ages. According to
Indian mythology, one of the wives of Vishna was found in a rose. In
Rome it was the custom to bless the rose on a certain Sunday, called
_Rose Sunday_.
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