Uncle John’s Impossible Questions & Astounding Answers by Bathroom Readers’ Institute

Author:Bathroom Readers’ Institute
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bathroom Readers’ Institute

Perennial Mystery

According to ancient Greek legend, the goddess Aphrodite created it. The Romans used it as a symbol for secrecy (a Roman phrase for “confidentiality” is named for it). Ancient Persians spread its oils around the world. It was found in King Tut’s tomb. Early Christians called it the “blood of the martyrs.” During the Dark Ages, monks kept it alive for medicinal use. The English fought for it, and Josephine adored it. What is it?

Perennial Mystery

The rose, and it’s much older than Aphrodite. Paleobotanists have traced its origins to central Asia about 60 to 70 million years ago; the rose remained in the Northern Hemisphere until humans arrived and spread it to south of the equator.

Since the dawn of civilization, people and roses have had a profound connection—for medicinal and ornamental purposes alike. In fact, one of the symbols of decadence that led to the fall of the Roman Empire: Rose gardens began to outnumber food gardens. Some Roman dining rooms even had rose vines spreading across the ceiling. What was said at dinner was supposed to remain there, which led to the Latin phrase for “secrecy”—sub rosa, or “under the rose.”

In 15th-century England, the House of York adopted a white rose; the House of Lancaster, a red rose. When Henry VII finally won the War of the Roses—and with it the English throne—he bred the red and the white flowers together to create the Tudor Rose, the official Rose of England.

But it was Napoleon’s wife, Josephine, and her “Rose Renaissance” that brought the rose into the modern age. She wanted to grow every kind of rose in the world in her gardens. To that end, Napoleon ordered his captains to bring back roses from their conquests. By the end of her life, Josephine had successfully cultivated 250 varieties of the flower. So beloved were her gardens that they sparked a fad of growing ornamental roses throughout Europe and in the New World—a fad that persists to this day.

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