Rose

Many varieties of the rose proper are indigenous to Syria. The "famed rose of Damascus is white, but there are also red and" yellow roses. In Cant. 2:1 and Isa. 35:1 the Hebrew word "habatstseleth (found only in these passages), rendered "rose" "(R.V. marg., "autumn crocus"), is supposed by some to mean the" "oleander, by others the sweet-scented narcissus (a native of" "Palestine), the tulip, or the daisy; but nothing definite can be" affirmed regarding it. "The "rose of Sharon" is probably the cistus or rock-rose, "several species of which abound in Palestine. "Mount Carmel" "especially abounds in the cistus, which in April covers some of" the barer parts of the mountain with a glow not inferior to that "of the Scottish heather." (See [539]MYRRH [2].)"