Jasper County Democrat, Volume 1, Number 49, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 March 1899 — BLOOD-FED ROSES. [ARTICLE]

BLOOD-FED ROSES.

They Bloom in Rare Beauty at the Vatican at Home. For years the gardens of the Vatican at Rome have been famous for roses, of so deep a red that they are almost black, so rich in idoom, so rare in perfqme that they rank first among all tlje rose* of Europe. And now somebody has found out that the Pope's gardenw is watering these famous flowers with Mood. But there is one rare and beautiful plant whii-h only grows upon the graves of men. ami only springs from a soil enriebttl with human blood. Such is the tradition attached to the Bloody Flower of Newmarket. Newmarket course has long been famous for a very ancient and curious trench, said to Lave been dug as a defense in battle and to be full of human bones. This Devil’s Ditch runs six miles from Reach to Dullingham, crossing the Newmarket race course. And here only, from the bones of the ancient dead, springs the bloody flower. This large five-petaled kingcup, Mood red to purple, with spiked leaves and a tbiek white sap. blooms In June and July in great big clumps along the ditch. The bloom is the size of a halfdollar. During the season the diteb is visited by many hundreds of people, who come to pick the flowers. Indeed, the Vatican rose and the Bloody Flower of Newmarket are not *e only plants which owe value and feme to tbe fertilising of human remains. The Benedictine and Chartreuse tiquers are both derived from grapes grown on ancient burial places.