
From the U.S. Code Online via GPO Access
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[Laws in effect as of January 23, 2000]
[Document not affected by Public Laws enacted between
  January 23, 2000 and December 4, 2001]
[CITE: 36USC303]

 
     TITLE 36--PATRIOTIC AND NATIONAL OBSERVANCES, CEREMONIES, AND 
                              ORGANIZATIONS
 
      Subtitle I--Patriotic and National Observances and Ceremonies
 
                   Part A--Observances and Ceremonies
 
       CHAPTER 3--NATIONAL ANTHEM, MOTTO, FLORAL EMBLEM, AND MARCH
 
Sec. 303. National floral emblem

    The flower commonly known as the rose is the national floral emblem.

(Pub. L. 105-225, Aug. 12, 1998, 112 Stat. 1263.)

                                          Historical and Revision Notes
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           Revised  Section                    Source (U.S. Code)              
 Source (Statutes at Large)
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303...................................  36:187.                          Oct. 7
, 1986, Pub. L. 99-449, 100 Stat.
                                                                          1128.
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    The text of 36:187 (words after comma) is omitted as executed 
because the proclamation was made on November 20, 1986. See Proclamation 
No. 5574, 51 Fed. Reg. 42197.

  Proc. No. 5574. The Rose Proclaimed the National Foral Emblem of the 
                        United States of America

    Proc. No. 5574, Nov. 20, 1986, 51 F.R. 42197, provided:
    Americans have always loved the flowers with which God decorates our 
land. More often than any other flower, we hold the rose dear as the 
symbol of life and love and devotion, of beauty and eternity. For the 
love of man and woman, for the love of mankind and God, for the love of 
country, Americans who would speak the language of the heart do so with 
a rose.
    We see proofs of this everywhere. The study of fossils reveals that 
the rose has existed in America for age upon age. We have always 
cultivated roses in our gardens. Our first President, George Washington, 
bred roses, and a variety he named after his mother is still grown 
today. The White House itself boasts a beautiful Rose Garden. We grow 
roses in all our fifty States. We find roses throughout our art, music, 
and literature. We decorate our celebrations and parades with roses. 
Most of all, we present roses to those we love, and we lavish them on 
our altars, our civil shrines, and the final resting places of our 
honored dead.
    The American people have long held a special place in their hearts 
for roses. Let us continue to cherish them, to honor the love and 
devotion they represent, and to bestow them on all we love just as God 
has bestowed them on us.
    The Congress, by Senate Joint Resolution 159 [Pub. L. 99-449, now 
this section], has designated the rose as the National Floral Emblem of 
the United States and authorized and requested the President to issue a 
proclamation declaring this fact.
    NOW, THEREFORE, I, RONALD REAGAN, President of the United States of 
America, do hereby proclaim the rose as the National Floral Emblem of 
the United States of America.
    IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this twentieth day 
of November, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and eighty-six, 
and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred 
and eleventh.
                                                          Ronald Reagan.
