Parsons on the Rose

btless one of the first plants selected to adorn the gardens which were laid out around the

this subject, as the entire fourth chapter of the twentieth book of his Natural History is devoted to Roses; and they are also occasionally mentioned in other parts of the work. But after all the information thus obtained, much yet remains to be desire

g

hough the art of producing them was in its infancy. However surprising in other respects may have been the progress of the culture of roses within forty years, particularly in France, Holland, and Belgium, there can be little doubt that, although the Romans were acquainted with a much smaller number of varieties than the moderns, yet flowers of those varieties were far more abundant than the aggregate quantity of flowers of all the varieties

olating invasions of the Huns and Goths. Thus it is, that those roses of P?stum, to which allusion is so frequently made by ancient writers, and which, according to Virgil and Pliny, bloomed semi-annually, and were common in the gardens of that city, are not now to be fo

in Spain, came forward early and bloomed in winter; those of Campania bloomed next in order; then those of Malta; and lastly those of P?stum, which flowered in the spring and autumn. It was pro

is day, the relation of Nero's extravagance (which is, however, attested by Suetonius), when it is told that in one fête alone he expended in roses only, more than four millions of sesterces, or one hundred thousand

ng the flower was that of cutting off the top of a reed, splitting it down a short distance, and enclosing in it a number of rose-buds, which, being bound around with papyrus, prevented their fragrance from escaping. The[Pg 72] Greeks also deemed it a great addition to

ose in bloom on one side, and the sunflower on the othe

es such skill in their culture as to produce them in abundance, even at the coldest season of the year; and, according to Seneca, by means of green-houses, heated by pipes filled with hot water. During the reign of Domitian, t

g the importance of rose-culture at that period, and in showing how the art of cultivating this pla

yage; neither could it have been of rooted plants in a dormant state, as nurserymen now send them to every part of the world, because the Romans had at that time no means of[Pg 73] causing them to vegetate and bloom in the winter. On the contrary, the cultivators at A

keep in readiness a certain number of vessels to be laden with boxes or vases of rose-plants, so prepared as not to bloom before their delivery at Rome. The cost of roses thus delivered in Rome must have been immense, but we do not find a single passage in any of the ancient authors which can give any light on this point; they only tell us that nothing for the gratification of luxury was considered too costly by the wealthy Roman citizens. Nor do they afford more positive information as to the species of Rose cultivated on the borders of the Nile, to gratify this taste of

its flowers under one name-that of Rosa,-they nevertheless gave particular appellations to the gardens or ground planted with rose-bushes. They were ter

which he had extracted from a manuscript of M. de la Neuville. The latter having been employed as military superintendent in Spain during the war of 1823, translated from a Spanish version some parts of an Arabian work upon culture[Pg 75] in general, in which that of the Rose was mentioned, with some important particulars. It stated that the Moors, who formerly conquered Spain, attached the highest value to this most beautiful of their flowers, and cultivated it with as much care as we do ourselves. "According to Abu-el-Ja?r," says the translation, "there are roses of many colors-carnation white, fallow or yellow, lapis-lazuli, or sky-blue. Some are of this last color on the outside, and yellow within. In the East they are acquainted with roses which are variegated with yellow and sky-blue, the inside of the corolla being of the one color, and the outside the other. The yellow-heart is very common in Tripoli and Syria, and the blue-heart is found on the coast of Alexandria." To us, at the present day, this re

his day: by suckers from the root, by cuttings, by budding, and by grafting.

summer until August, and then give it an abundance of moisture; this will hasten its growth, and cause the expansion of its flowers in great profusion, without impairing its ability to bloom the ensuing spring, as usual." "Or else," adds the same author, "in the month of October, burn the old branches to the level of the earth, moisten the soil for eight consecutive days, and then suspend the watering; alternate these periods of moisture and drought as many as five times, and probably in about sixty days, or before the end of autumn, the roots will have thrown out vigorous branches, which will in due time be loaded with flowers, without destroying the[Pg 77] ability of the plant to bloom again the following spring." The climate in which the Moors lived-that of Cordova, Grenada, and Seville, where the winter is very much like our weather in mid-autumn-was very favorable to the cultivation of the Rose. In this country the same results could doubtless be obtained in the Carolinas, and the experiment would be well worth trying, even in the latitude of New York. It would be no small triumph to obtain an autumnal bloom of the many beautiful varieties of French, Moss, or Provence Roses. Haj has also given the method of k

branches of the La Reine, and other Perpetuals, and others, again, planted with some delicate climbing roses, whose branches, falling down, would form a weeping tree of a most unique, graceful, and showy character. The pipes could be made of earthenware, tin, or wood, and be painted

nfounded in fact, as the grafting of the Rose on the almond, the apple, the jujube, and other trees, the little treatise translated by De la Neuville certainly contains most excellent remarks up

Yellow Rose, unknown to us until recently, was apparently familiar to them; and the Blue Rose, of which their manuscripts speak, is now extinct, if it indeed ever existed; for amid the i

avement. In Syria and Persia it has been cultivated from a very early period, and the ancient name of the former, Suristan, is said to signify the land of roses. Damascus, Cashmere, Barbary, and Fayoum in Egypt, all cultivated the Rose extensively for its distilled oil or essence. Very little is extant respecting the culture of the Rose in the middle ages, but that it was cultivated and valued is known by its having been worn by knights at the tournament, as an emblem of their devotion to grace and beauty. According to Loudon, "Ludovico Verthema, who traveled in the East in 1503, observed that T?ssa was particularly celebrated for roses, and that he saw a great quantity of these flowers at Calicut." The Rose is to this day also extensively cultivated in India, and for commercial purposes perhaps in greater abundance than is now known in any other country. Bishop Heber states that "Ghazepoor is celebrated throughout Indi

y valued by the Hindoos as an article of commerce, but was int

of Damascus as occupying an area of many acres, about three miles from that city. Sir Robert Ker Porter, speaking of the garden of one of the royal palaces of Persia, says: "I was struck with the appearance of two rose trees, full fourteen feet high, laden with thousands of flowers, in every degree of expansion, and of a bloom and delicacy of scent that imbued the[Pg 81] whole atmosphere with exquisite perfume. Indeed, I believe that in no country in the world does the rose grow in such perfection as in Persia; in no country is it so cultivated and prized by the natives. Their gardens and courts are crowded by its plants, their rooms ornamented with roses, filled with its gathered branches, and every bath strewed with the full-blown flowers, plucked

f Cashmere, With its Roses, the

s kept with great rejoicing, and an entire abandonment to pleasure. At this time, a great number of tents were pitch

at it was emphatically the land of roses; and all that we can gather from its history or tradition evinces, that to the[Pg 82] inhabitants of the East, includi

lic garden of Frankfort. They are found in the gardens of Valencia, in Spain, and Sir John Carr, speaking of the seat of a Spanish gentleman near Tarragona, says, "The doors of the dining room open into

h America, with the careful nurture and attention bestowed on a single rose bush, and the delight exhibited at its bloom, while all around in natural luxuriance were the most beautiful and gorgeous plants and flowers whi

n, far surpassed all that I had seen; she accompanied me to the top of the flat-roofed house, used at the South as a place of evening resort, and there, in one corner, I found a thrifty plant of the Tea Rose, which to her infinite delight

of the nurseries in the United States. The French are constantly searching for improvements in horticultural science and practice, with an enthusiasm rarely found in the more cold Englishman, whose skill seems to consist less in th

to symmetrical habit of growth. We can imagine nothing more beautiful than some of the plants that we saw at the exhibitions of the London Horticultural Society at Chiswick; every plant was pruned, trained and grown, after an ideal, but perfect model, with its close and luxuriant foliage, its thrif

r nursery articles, and on our visit to him, we found him much interested with experiments in fruit culture. Lane, Wood, and Paul, are esteemed very good cultivators, and generally correct in their nomenclature. From these several establishments in England and France have been imported most of the varieties now existing in this country. Their t

e Rose is resuming its ancient empire in the queendom of Flora. The advent of the Bourbon and the Remontant, or Perpetual classes, has no doubt materially aided this change, but it is in a great part owing to the easy culture of the plant, and the intrinsic merits and beauty of the flower. The taste of the horticultural public being thus decidedly for the Rose, a demand w

g

ue principles. In order to make our work as perfect as possible, we have not hesitated to add to our own experience all the information derived from a personal inspection of French and English nurseries, and to cull from foreign works and periodicals all that may inter