Fig. 4.—GARDEN ROSE.
Fig. 4.—GARDEN ROSE.
On a preceding page, we have given our opinion respecting classification, but we wish it to be fully understood, that we do not deny the existence of clearly distinctive characters in the true French, Provence, Damask, etc., but simply assert that the lines of difference betweenthese so run into each other, and are so blended together, that it is almost impossible to know where to place a new rose, which may partake of the qualities of all. We havementioned Rivers as the most skillful and correct of rose-growers; and yet, in classing Lady Fitzgerald and Madame Hardy among the Damasks, he says that neither of them are pure Damask; and the Duke of Cambridge, which at first he thought a Hybrid China, he now places as a Damask; other similar instances are frequent. Many roses, moreover, are classed as hybrids which are not truly such. We are quite inclined to think that a large number of the varieties supposed to have been produced by hybridizing are nothing more than the natural produce, and that the pollen, in many cases, has not impregnated the pistil to which it was applied. With this uncertainty, therefore, as evinced by Rivers in his work, and with doubts of the hybridity of supposed hybrids, we deem it better to class them all together; and, for the benefit of those who may prefer the old classification, to attach to each name the class by which it has been hitherto known.
We write principally for the amateur, and we think he will find it less embarrassing to make a selection from this classification than from the old one.
A great number of Garden Roses exist, but we describe here only a few distinct varieties, with colors which are seldom found among the Remontants.
All the others have either their equals or their superiors among the Remontants, and being certain to bloom only once in the season, are scarcely worthy of cultivation, compared with the Remontants.
Chénédole, H. C.—One of the most splendid varieties, and is truly beautiful. Its foliage and habit are very good, and its very luxuriant growth makes it a good pillar rose. Its flower is cupped, large, double, and fragrant, and its color is a rich, glowing crimson, of almost dazzling brilliancy. It is altogether the most desirable rose of this class.
Charles Lawson, H. B.—This has handsome foliage,and vigorous habit of growth, with large, symmetrical, and bright rose-colored flowers.
Coupe d’Hébé, H. B.—A gem of the family. It is large, double, symmetrical, and finely cupped. Its color a delicate, wax-like, rosy pink. Its growth is luxuriant, and adapted for pillars.
Emerance, H. P.—A beautiful cupped rose, of a color unusual in this class, being of a pale lemon or straw color. Its form is very regular, and the habit of the plant good.
George the Fourth, H. C.—An old rose, produced by T. Rivers, but is still one of the most desirable of this class. Its flowers are of a dark crimson, and its young shoots have a purple tinge. Its very luxuriant habit makes it suitable for a pillar.
Julie d’Etranges, F.—This has a large cupped flower, of a delicate rose color.
Madame Hardy, F.—A vigorous habit, and finely shaped flower. Its color is pure white, sometimes with a green centre.
Madame Plantier, H. C.—A cupped and double pure white rose. It is a luxuriant grower, a most abundant bloomer, and one of the very best of the white summer roses. Its foliage is so marked in its richness and beauty that any one can readily distinguish it by that alone. Were it Remontant, it would possess all the requisites of a perfect white rose.
Obscurité, F.—One of the darkest roses known.
Œillet Parfait, F.—A beautiful striped rose, resembling a carnation. Its form is compact, and its color a very light blush, nearly white, beautifully and distinctly striped with rose and bright crimson.
Tricolor de Flandre, F.—A very double, distinct, and compact flower. Its color is lilac, striped with red and crimson.
MOSS ROSES.
The Moss Rose was introduced into England from Holland in the sixteenth century, and is first mentioned by Miller, in 1727, by whom it was supposed to be a sport of the Provence Rose, which opinion has been confirmed by modern botanists. Its peculiarities are the delicate prickles which crowd its stem, and the beautiful mossy covering of its calyx. This mossy appearance has been deemed by some a merelusus naturæ, and by others the work of an insect similar to that which produces the bédéguar, or rose-gall. The former opinion, however, prevails; and this freak of nature cultivators have succeeded in fixing and perpetuating in a great number of varieties. The first Moss Rose known in France was said to have been introduced there by Madame de Genlis, who brought it with her on her return from England. In 1810, scarcely more than one variety was known, and now there exist more than a hundred. Of these, the best and most distinct are the following:
Alice Leroy.—Light rosy-pink, free blooming, and of good habit.
Baronne de Wassenaer.—This has a good form, bright red color, and flowers in clusters.
Captain Ingram.—Flowers of a dark, velvety purple.
Comtesse de Murinais.—A vigorous habit. Its color is pale flesh, changing to pure white, and it is one of the best of the white Mosses.
Common.—This is the old rose-colored Moss, which has been generally cultivated in gardens. It grows well, blooms freely, is well covered with moss, and is one of the best of the old varieties.
Cristata.—A very singular and beautiful variety, said to have been discovered in the crevice of a wall at Friburg, in Switzerland. Rivers classes it with the ProvenceRoses, and when open, it is merely a variety of that rose; but when in bud, it is more properly a Moss, although its calyx is not covered with a fine moss, but has more of a crested appearance. In a rich soil this fringe-like crest most beautifully clasps and surmounts the bud, and gives the rich clusters a truly elegant appearance. Its form is globular, and its color rose. It is one of the few that do not grow well on their own roots, but require to be budded on some strong-growing stock.
Etna.—Brilliant crimson, tinted with purple.
Eugene Verdier.—Light red, deeper in the center, large, full, and of fine form.
Gloire des Mousseuses.—A large and handsome flower, with a clear, pale rose color.
John Cranston.—Crimson and purple shaded, of medium size, full.
Louis Gimard.—Bright red, large and full, vigorous.
Little Gem.—A miniature Moss Rose, forming compact bushes densely covered with small double crimson flowers, beautifully mossed. It is of charming effect in the garden and most valuable for bouquets or vases.
Laneii.—A vigorous grower, and has large and thrifty foliage. The buds are large and well mossed, and it is beautiful both in bud and expanded. Its color is bright rose.
Luxembourg.—Like the last, of vigorous growth. Its flowers are a purplish crimson.
Madame de Rochelambert.—This has large and full flowers, of an amaranth color.
Madame Edouard Ory.—This was described among the Remontant Mosses.
Nuits de Young.—Plant of a dwarf habit. Its flowers are small, with a deep, velvety purple color.
Princesse Adelaide.—A remarkably vigorous-growingvariety, with large and handsome foliage, and would make a good pillar rose. Its regularly formed flowers, of a bright pink or rose, are produced in clusters, and open well. It does not bear close pruning. This is one of the most desirable of its class, and owes its origin to Laffay.
Princess Royal.—A very robust rose, almost equal to the preceding in vigor. Its young leaves and branches have a red tinge, and its cupped flowers are of a deep crimson purple, marbled and spotted with red. Although not quite double when fully open, they are very beautiful when in bud. A moss rose, however double, is peculiar only in bud, for, when fully expanded, the mossy calyx must inevitably be hidden.
Perpetual White.—This was described among the Remontant Mosses, as also were
Reine Blanche.—Pure white, large and full.
Salet.
White Bath.—Paper-white, beautiful, large and full, one of the best.
Like all other roses, and even in a greater degree, the Moss Rose requires a light and very rich soil, with a dry bottom. Many of them make very beautiful beds and patches, when planted in rich soil, and kept well pegged down. A good supply of stable manure should be given them in the autumn, to be washed down about their roots by the winter rains. They do not generally require or bear so much pruning as other roses, but their bloom may sometimes be prolonged by shortening part of the shoots close, and only the tips of the remainder. When properly cultivated, few objects can be more beautiful than these roses, either singly or in masses. Without making so brilliant a show as some other classes, the moss which envelops them imparts a touch of graceful beauty belonging to no other flower.
SCOTCH ROSES.
These roses are all derived from a dwarf rose found growing wild in Scotland and in the north of England. They are distinguished by their small leaves, abundant bloom, and delicate habit. Being perfectly hardy, they are desirable for beds or borders, in which, with proper arrangement of colors, they show beautifully, sometimes two weeks before other roses open, producing flowers all along the stem. Rose growers describe, in their catalogues, two or three hundred varieties, but of them all, scarcely forty or fifty are distinct; of these the best three are the following:
Countess of Glasgow.—A very pretty and brilliant dark rose, blooming abundantly.
Queen Of May.—A fine and distinct variety, of a bright pink color.
William the Fourth.—An excellent variety, of luxuriant growth. Its flowers are pure white, and among the largest of the class.
BRIER ROSES.
These roses are distinguished by their small, rough foliage and brier habit. They include the Sweet-Brier, the Hybrid Sweet-Brier, and the Austrian Brier. The Sweet-Brier is found in various parts of this country and in Europe, and is distinguished by the peculiar delightful fragrance of its leaves. Its simple little flower, found among the hedges, has been long a favorite, and, under the name of Eglantine, has been often the theme of poets.
The Hybrid Sweet-Brier is allied to the preceding, but has larger foliage, and is of more robust growth. Many roses have been placed in this class and among the Sweet-Briers that have none of the peculiar scent of the Sweet-Briers; and hence, again, the necessity of classing togetherthese and the Austrian Briers, respecting which there is much confusion. The true Austrian Rose is a native of the South of Europe, and is a clearly distinct rose; but some have been called Austrian which have scarcely any of the characters of the original rose. All three, however, are Briers, that is, they produce their flowers on short joints all along the stem, and have the peculiar rough, briery leaves. We therefore place them all together, attaching as before the name of the old class. The best are the following:
Celestial, S. B.—A small cupped rose, very double and fragrant, of a pale flesh-color and very pretty.
Copper Austrian, A. B.—A very singular looking rose, blooming well in this climate. The inside of the flower is of a coppery-red, and the outside inclining to pale yellow or sulphur. It is desirable for its peculiar color.
Double Margined Hip, H. S. B.—Of luxuriant growth, almost adapted for a pillar. Its form is cupped, and its color creamy-white, shaded with pink.
Double Yellow Provenceis the best of the two varieties which compose the species called Sulphurea. We have never seen its flowers, and English writers all speak of the great difficulty of making it bloom. Rivers recommends to bud it on strong stocks, and says that it blooms most profusely in the warm, dry climate of Florence and Genoa. The plant grows with luxuriance and produces plenty of flower-buds, which, with proper culture, would probably open in our warm climate, which is very similar to that of Florence and Genoa. Its small foliage and slender, thorny wood, place it fairly among the Briers. Its flower is so fine that it is well worth the trouble of repeated experiment to obtain a good bloom. It has long been admired and exercised the skill of rose growers, as is proved by the following passages from some old works, which give instructions for proper culture:
“Whereas all other roses are best natural, this is best inoculated upon another stock. Others thrive and bear best in the sun; this, in the shade: therefore the best way that I know to cause this rose to bring forth fair and kindly flowers, is performed after this manner. First in the stock of a Francfort Rose, near the ground, put in the bud of the single yellow rose, which will quickly shoot to a good length; then, half a yard higher than the place where the same was budded, put into it a bud of the double yellow rose, which growing, the suckers must be kept from the root, and all the buds rubbed off, except those of the kind desired, which, being grown big enough to bear (which will be in two years), it must in winter be pruned very near, cutting off all the small shoots, and only leaving the biggest, cutting off the tops of them also, as far as they are small. Then in the spring, when the buds for leaves come forth, rub off the smallest of them, leaving only some few of the biggest, which, by reason of the strength of the stock, affordeth more nourishment than any other, and the agreeable nature of the single yellow rose, from whence it is immediately nourished, the shoots will be strong and able to bear out the flowers, if they be not too many, which may be prevented by nipping off the smallest buds for flowers. The tree should stand something shadowed, and not too much in the heat of the sun, and in a standard by itself, rather than under a wall.” That which follows is from a book calledSystema Horticulturæ, dated 1688:—“There is no flower-bearing tree that yields blossom so beautiful as the rose, whereof the yellow Provence Rose is the most beautiful where it brings forth fair and kindly flowers, which hath been obtained by budding a single yellow rose on the stock of a flourishing Francfort Rose near the ground: when that single yellow is well grown, in that branch inoculate your double yellow rose; then cut off all suckers and shoots from the first and second, leaving only your last,which must be pruned very near, leaving but few buds, which will have the more nourishment, and yield the fairer and more entire blossoms. This tree, or a layer from a rose of the same kind, delights most, and blows fairest, in a cold, moist, and shady place, and not against a hot wall.”
Harrisonii.—A fine yellow Brier of American origin, and is perhaps the best hardy yellow rose for general cultivation.
Persian Yellow, A. B.—This is the deepest yellow rose known, and is a highly improved edition of the Harrison. Its flowers are more double, and of a deeper yellow than that rose. It grows freely, blooms abundantly, and its small double flowers possess a richness of color unequalled by any other rose. No garden should be without it. It should be added, however, that it is exceedingly difficult to strike from cuttings, and is one of those few varieties for which budding upon another stock is preferable.
Rose Angle, S. B.—An excellent variety, with very fragrant foliage, and large double flowers of a bright rose color. It is one of the best of the true Eglantines.
Like the Moss Roses, the Briers will not bear much pruning, and require merely the tips of the shoots to be cut off.
AYRSHIRE ROSES.
This class is very valuable for covering unsightly places, old buildings, and decayed trees. They bloom some two weeks earlier than other roses, and will grow in soil where others would scarcely vegetate. Hence they are valuable for covering naked sand-banks, or bare spots of earth, and their roots would be of material assistance in keeping up the soil of loose banks. Rivers gives an extract from the Dundee Courier, showing the effect produced by some of these roses.
“Some years ago, a sand pit at Ellangowan was filled up with rubbish found in digging a well. Over this a piece of rock was formed for the growth of plants which prefer such situations, and among them were planted some half dozen plants of the Double Ayrshire Rose, raised in this neighborhood about ten years ago. These roses now most completely cover the whole ground, a space of thirty feet by twenty. At present they are in full bloom, showing probably not less than ten thousand roses in this small space.”
The Ayrshire Roses are also valuable for weeping trees; when budded on a stock some ten or twelve feet high, the branches quickly reach the ground, and protecting the stem from the sun by their close foliage, present a weeping tree of great beauty, loaded with flowers.
Dundee Rambler.—One of the best and most double of the Ayrshire Roses. Its color is white, often edged with pink, and blooming in large clusters. It is a very desirable variety.
Double Blush Ayrshire.—A most vigorous climber, with a pretty flower, and will grow in the poorest soil.
BANKSIAN ROSES.
Roses of this class have a very small flower closely resembling that of the doubleSpiræa prunifolia, and blooming in clusters of about the same size. In this climate they require the protection of a green-house, and are very striking for the great profusion of their corymbs of pure white or deep yellow flowers. We recollect seeing, at the Botanic Garden at Naples, a very large plant of the Banksian Rose, the main stem being six inches in diameter, and branching off into a dozen others, fifty feet or more long. In the Southern States they would grow well in the open air, and being most vigorous climbers, would soon cover a house or trellis, and, with their smallbut most abundant flowers interspersed among the smooth glossy-green foliage, would form an object of great beauty.
Double White.—Introduced into England from China in 1807, and named in honor of Lady Banks. It is a beautiful little rose about half an inch in diameter, blooming abundantly in small and pure white clusters with a slight perfume like that of the violet.
Double Yellow.—Introduced in 1827. It has bright buff-yellow flowers; these are produced in great abundance, and give a pleasant perfume before the dew is off early in the morning, or just at evening.
Fortuniana.—Introduced by Fortune in 1850. It has white fragrant flowers of much larger size than the preceding varieties. Its want of thepetitecharacter of the others makes it less beautiful and striking.
Jaune Serin.—A luxuriant growing variety, with yellow flowers of larger size than those of the old Yellow Banksia.
The Banksian Roses do not bear much pruning. It should be done immediately after the bloom is over, and then only the heavier branches cut out, leaving those which are full flower-bearing twigs, which should not be shortened. If the branches are all shortened, the plants will produce an abundance of strong, new wood, but no flowers.
BOURSAULT ROSES.
This class is marked by its long, flexible, reddish shoots, which grow rapidly, and are perfectly hardy. Their smooth bark renders them desirable for stocks to bud upon, and a fine rose of this class, covering a trellis and budded with roses of various colors, would present a beautiful appearance. These, also, are impatient of much pruning.
Amadis.—One of the best, with its pendulous clusters of large purplish-crimson flowers.
Blush.—This has large, double, blush flowers.
EVERGREEN ROSES.
The original of this class is theRosa sempervirens, a wild rose of Italy. They are very beautiful and desirable, and although not entirely evergreen in this climate, retain their foliage very late in the season. They are very easy of cultivation, and most luxuriant climbers over naked trees, old houses, fences, and walls, or along the surface of the ground, which they will soon cover to the exclusion of all weeds, and present a large mass of rich, glossy foliage, and abundant bloom. When thus planted, the large weeds should be pulled up until the plant fairly covers the ground, when no more attention will be needed. They are well adapted for training up columns, and we know of few things more beautiful than a temple formed of numerous columns, with Evergreen Roses growing luxuriantly upon them and festooned gracefully between. Nothing, indeed, can be more gracefully beautiful than festoons, wherever they can be made. They constitute the chief beauty of the vine-clad fields of Italy, and there would be no less beauty in occasional festooning of roses trained between pillars or the trees of a lawn. They are also very beautiful when budded on high standards, their dark-green glossy foliage weeping to the ground, and forming a fine dome or pyramid of leaf and bloom. When pruned in the winter, the branches may be thinned out, but not shortened; for if pruned close, they will make a luxuriant growth the next season, but will produce no flowers.
Félicité Perpetuelle.—A most beautiful rose, and one of the very best of the class; when properly cultivated,it produces an abundance of very double creamy-white flowers, shaped like a double ranunculus.
Melanie de Montjoie.—A variety of much beauty. Its abundant and glossy dark-green foliage contrasts beautifully with its large, pure white flowers.
Myrianthes.—One of the best of this class. Its flowers are perfectly shaped, and of a very delicate rose color.
Triomphe de Bollwiller.—A very fine hybrid between the Evergreen and Tea Roses. It is rather tender in this climate, but valuable for its tendency to bloom in the autumn. Its flowers are very large, double, fragrant, and globular, and their color is a blush or creamy white. At the South, where it would not be killed by the cold weather, this would be one of the most desirable climbing roses.
HYBRID CLIMBING ROSES.
We include here some which do not belong to any of the distinct classes.
Indica Major.—A hybrid climbing rose, of most luxuriant growth and nearly evergreen foliage. Its flowers are very large, double, and of a delicate rose color. The very rapid growth of this rose makes it excellent for covering old buildings. We recollect being shown, at the Bartram garden of Philadelphia, a fine old plant which had covered the whole side of the house, and presented a beautiful appearance. Buist states it to be this variety.
Madame d’Arblayis a truly gigantic hybrid climber, perfectly hardy, and with strong, Bourbon-like foliage. It blooms in large clusters of pure white flowers, and is a truly excellent variety.
Menoux.—This variety has crimson flowers, a color which is not common among climbing roses.
Sir John Sebright.—A hybrid Musk rose, grown byRivers. Its flowers are produced in large clusters, are very fragrant, and their color is a bright crimson-scarlet.
The Garland.—A most vigorous hybrid climber, blooming in immense clusters of fragrant, creamy-white flowers, changing to blush after expansion. When in full bloom, the contrast of the large white clusters with the bright green foliage is very beautiful.
MULTIFLORA ROSES.
The parent of this class is a native of China and Japan. They are unfortunately somewhat tender in this climate. We have known them to endure safely several winters when unprotected, but they are unreliable in this respect. One of the best is
Grevillei or Seven Sisters.—It has a remarkably vigorous growth, and blooms with unusual profusion. A large plant will not unfrequently show more than a thousand flowers, all blooming in clusters and of several shades of color. This variety is impatient of much pruning.
De la Grifferaie.—This bears the knife better than the preceding, and may be grown as a bush with proper pruning. It is hardier than others of the class, and bears a profusion of blush and rose-colored flowers.
Laure Davoust.—One of the most beautiful of the Multiflora Roses, and of most luxuriant growth. It has larger flowers and handsomer foliage than any of the other Multiflora Roses, and blooms in immense clusters of perfect flowers, changing from white to pink. For covering houses or trellises it is very desirable.
Russelliana.—This is very vigorous, and yet bears pruning so well that it may be grown as a bush. Its clusters are large, and the flowers change as they open from dark to light red lilac, giving it a singular appearance.
THE PRAIRIE ROSE.
The double varieties of the original Michigan Rose, orRosa rubifolia, have nearly all been produced by Samuel Feast, of Baltimore, while a few new varieties owe their origin to Joshua Pierce, of Washington. They are remarkable for their perfectly hardy nature, braving equally well the frosts of Canada or the heat of Louisiana. The leaves are large, rather rough, and of a rich dark-green. They grow with unexampled rapidity, exceeding in this respect any of the climbing roses, and would cover old buildings or naked ground in a very short space of time. They bloom after the other summer roses are mostly gone, and produce their flowers abundantly in large clusters of different shades, from the shaded white of Baltimore Belle to the rich deep rose of
Queen of the Prairies.—This is the best, and of the most luxuriant growth. Its large flowers are of a peculiar cupped form, almost globular, when in bud, and altogether of very perfect shape. They are of a deep rose color, with a white stripe in the centre of each petal. This rose is truly superb, and, for our cold winters and hot sun, an unequalled climber. It would be a fine rose to cover a trellis or building, and then bud into its branches a dozen different Remontant or Bourbon Roses of various colors. Thetout ensemblewould be superb.
Baltimore Belle.—This variety is thought by some to have a strain of Noisette sap in it from the delicacy and beauty of its flower and its tendency to bloom in the autumn. It produces abundant clusters of white flowers shaded with a slight cloud of pink. It is one of the finest climbing roses known.
Gem of the Prairie.(Burgess’.)—A hybrid between the Queen of the Prairies and the Remontant, Madame Laffay. It is said to combine the vigorous growth of the one with the rich color and delicate fragrance of theother. We do not, however, think that it equals its early promise.
Jane.—Very double, of a deep rosy lilac.
Mrs. Hovey.—This has large white flowers, and all the vigor of its class.
Pride of Washington.—A rosy lilac, and double.
There are several other varieties in this class, but the preceding are the best.
As before stated, the Rose was the theme of the earliest poets of antiquity; and it was doubtless one of the first plants selected to adorn the gardens which were laid out around the new habitations constructed upon the exchange of the wandering for a civilized mode of life.
The most ancient authors upon husbandry, whose works are extant, have all treated of the culture of Roses: Theophrastus among the Greeks; and among the Romans, Varro, Columella, Palladius, and Pliny. To Pliny are we specially indebted for information on 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 desired; and although we find in other ancient authors some curious facts bearing upon other points in the history of the Rose, they are mostly so general in their character as to give us very little insight into the actual culture of the Rose at those periods.
The profuseness with which they were used among the Greeks, the Romans, the Egyptians, and other ancient nations in their religious solemnities, their public ceremonies, and even in the ordinary customs of private life, would lead us to suppose, and with some degree of correctness, that roses were very abundantly cultivated by them all; and we are inclined to think that their cultivation was then far more general than at the present time, although 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 of roses cultivated at the present day. It cannot be positively asserted that the Remontant Roses of the present time were unknown at Rome, since the gardeners of that city practiced sowing the seeds of the Rose, by which mode many of the most remarkable varieties of that class have been obtained by modern cultivators. The Romans, however, preferred to propagate by cuttings, which produced flowering plants much sooner than those from the seed.
But, though the Romans may have had roses of the same species with some of those which we now cultivate, it is scarcely probable that these species could have continued until this period, and escaped the devastation attendant on the revolutions of empire, or the more desolating invasions of the Huns and Goths. Thus it is, that those roses of Pæstum, 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 found. Jussieu and Loudresse, two French gentlemen, successively visitedItaly with the express object of finding this twice-bearing Rose in Pæstum or its environs, yet, notwithstanding their carefully prosecuted researches, they could find no traces of it whatever.
Although the number of varieties known to the Romans was very limited, they had discovered a method of making the blooming season continue many months. According to Pliny, the roses of Carthage, in Spain, came forward early and bloomed in winter; those of Campania bloomed next in order; then those of Malta; and lastly those of Pæstum, which flowered in the spring and autumn. It was probably the blooming of this last species which the gardeners of Rome discovered (in Seneca’s time) the secret of retarding by a certain process, or of hastening by means of their warm green-houses.
In the last part of this work, we have cited many passages from ancient authors, which show to what an enormous extent the use of roses was carried by the Romans on certain occasions. It is difficult to credit, at this 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 rosesonly, more than four millions of sesterces, or one hundred thousand dollars. It would be no easy matter, even at the present period of abundant cultivation of Roses, to obtain from all the nurseries of England, France, and America together, roses sufficient to amount to so large a sum.
The Romans derived the use of this flower from the Greeks. In Greece, and throughout the East, roses were cultivated, not only for the various purposes we have mentioned, but also for the extraction of their perfumes. Among the many plans which they adopted for preserving 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. TheGreeks also deemed it a great addition to the fragrance of the Rose to plant garlic near its roots. The island of Rhodes, which has successively borne many names, was particularly indebted to the culture of roses for that which it bears at this day. It was the Isle of Roses, the Greek for Rose being Ροδον,—Rodon.
Medals of Rhodes, whose reverse impressions present a rose in bloom on one side, and the sunflower on the other, are to be found even now in cabinets of curiosities.
Extravagance in roses, among the Romans, kept pace with the increase of their power, until they at length desired them at all seasons. At first they procured their winter’s supply from Egypt, but subsequently attained themselves 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, the forcing of roses was carried to such perfection, and flowers produced in winter in so great abundance, that those brought from Egypt, as before mentioned, excited only the contempt of the citizens of the world’s metropolis.
This fact, as also handed down to us by the epigram of Martial, is of great assistance in estimating the importance of rose-culture at that period, and in showing how the art of cultivating this plant had spread, and how it was already far advanced among the ancient Romans and their contemporaries.
If the Egyptians cultivated roses for transportation to Rome during the winter, they must have had very extensive plantations for the purpose. The exportation could not have been of loose flowers, for they would have been withered long before the termination of the voyage; 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 ofcausing them to vegetate and bloom in the winter. On the contrary, the cultivators at Alexandria and Memphis must, of necessity, have sent them away in the vases and boxes in which they had planted them with that object, and when they were just beginning to break from the bud, in order that they might arrive at Rome at the moment they commenced expanding.
At that remote period, when navigation was far behind its present state of perfection, the voyage from the mouth of the Nile to the coast of Italy occupied more than twenty days. When this long voyage is considered, and also the quantity of roses required by the Romans to enwreath their crowns and garlands, to cover their tables and couches, and the pavements of their festive halls, and to surround the urns which contained the ashes of their dead, it is evident that the Egyptians, who traded in roses, in order to satisfy the prodigality of the Romans, would be compelled to 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 the Romans. According to Delile, there were found in Egypt, at the time of the French expedition into that country, only the White Rose and the Centifolia, or hundred-leaved—two species not very susceptible of either a forcing or retarding culture. The only Rose known at that time, which bloomed in the winter, was the Rose of Pæstum, referred to by Virgil, as “biferique rosaria Pæsti,” and which was probably the same as our monthly Damask Rose,and which produced in Egypt and Rome flowers at all seasons, as the Damask does now with us, under a proper mode of culture.
The extent to which the culture and commerce of roses was carried among the Romans is shown by the fact that, although they had confounded the tree and its flowers under one name—that ofRosa,—they nevertheless gave particular appellations to the gardens or ground planted with rose-bushes. They were termed aRosarium, or aRosetum. Ovid says, “Quot amœna Rosaria flores.” The dealer in roses was also designated by the distinctive appellation ofRosarius.
In the latter part of the decline of the Roman Empire, when paganism still existed to a great degree, there arose a people who formed, as it were, the connecting link between the ancient and modern world—a people who acknowledged but one Supreme Ruler, and his sole vicegerent, Mahomet; a people whose origin was among the wildest tribes of Ishmael’s descendants, who possessed in a great degree the luxuries of civilized life, and among whom the arts, sciences, and agriculture, were very flourishing for many ages. Among the Moors of Spain, the culture of the Rose was pursued with as much scientific and practical method as at the present day, but with somewhat less happy results. When in Paris, some years since, we became acquainted with M. Hardy, the chief director of the Luxembourg gardens, and who is well known to rose growers, by the many beautiful varieties which he has originated. His interest in this subject was very great, and in 1828, he published in theJournal des Jardinssome interesting observations 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 culturein 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-Jaïr,” 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 relation may with reason seem incredible, since amid the numerous varieties now existing, and the skill of their cultivators, we have in no instance been able to obtain a blue Rose. Abu-el-Jaïr may have ventured to state it as a fact without proper authority, for, according to M. de la Neuville, Abu-Abdallah-ebu-el-Fazel, another nearly contemporaneous author, enumerated a variety of roses without mentioning the blue. “There are,” says this last author, “four varieties of roses: the first is named the Double White; it has an exquisite odor, and its cup unites more than a hundred petals: the second is the Yellow, which is of a golden color, and bright as the jonquil; then the Purple; and lastly the flesh-colored, which is the most common of them all.” Farther on the same author adds: “The number of species is supposed to be large: the Mountain or Wild; the Double, which is variegated with red and white shades; and the Chinese. The Double, however, is the most beautiful, and is composed of forty to fifty petals.”
The Moors multiplied roses by all the various methods which are employed at this day: by suckers from the root, by cuttings, by budding, and by grafting. Thepruning-knife was also freely used, in order to form regular heads.
There is a farther translation of De la Neuville from a Spanish version of the “Book of Agriculture,” written by Ebu-Alwan, who lived in the twelfth century, and who, in addition to his own experience, quoted largely from some Chaldaic and Arabic writers. He states that the Moors practiced two methods of sowing the seeds of the Rose. The first was in earthen pans—a mode adapted to delicate plants; they were watered immediately after being sown, and afterward twice a week until autumn, when such care became unnecessary. The other method was sowing broadcast as grain is sown, then covering the seed-beds an inch deep with carefully sifted manure or fine mould, and giving them the requisite watering. The plants from these seed-beds did not produce flowers until the third year after their being thus prepared, and until they had been transplanted into squares or borders; such is still the case with nearly all our summer roses, the only kind the Moors appear to have possessed. They also understood the art of forcing roses. “If you wish,” says Haj, another author, “the Rose tree to bloom in autumn, you must choose one that has been accustomed to periodical waterings; you must deprive it of water entirely during the heat of 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 theability 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 keeping the Rose in bud, in order to prolong its period of blooming. His process, however, is of so uncertain a character, as scarcely to merit an insertion here. The manuscript of De la Neuville also contains particular directions for propagating roses, and for planting hedges of the Eglantine, to protect the vineyards and gardens, and at the same time to serve as stocks for grafting. Nothing is omitted in the Arabian treatise which pertains to the management of this shrub; the manner of cultivating, weeding, transplanting, watering, etc., are all particularly explained. Among a variety of curious matters, it contains the process by which, for the purpose of embellishing their gardens, they produced the appearance of trees whose tops are loaded with roses. A hollow pipe, four feet long, or more, if the top was to be large, was obtained, of a well-proportioned diameter, set upright, to resemble the trunk of a tree, and filled with earth or sand in a suitable state of moisture. In the top of this pipe were planted several varieties of roses, of different colors, which, rooting freely in the earth around them, soon formed a bushy head, and represented a third-class tree, clothed with rich foliage and beautiful flowers.
This plan could now be practiced with success; and we can scarcely imagine more beautiful objects in a lawn than a number of these pipes, of various heights, single, and in groups, some low, with the small heads of theChina or Tea Roses, others high, and with the large, robust 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 in imitation of the bark of a tree. Still better would be the trunk of a small tree, hollowed out for the purpose, which, with the bark on, would puzzle many a close observer, and which could show a luxuriant head of leaves and flowers on the most sterile soil that ever formed a lawn.
From what has been said on the culture of roses among the Moors in Spain, there can be no doubt that they had made great progress therein; and with the exception of a few statements, evidently unfounded 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 upon the culture of roses, whether we compare them with what the ancients have left us, or even with those of the various writers on Rose culture in Europe and America within the last half century.
As roses were so frequently propagated from the seed by the Moors, they must have known quite a number of varieties, exclusive of all those they had brought or obtained from the East. The 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 infinite variety of roses, of every color and shade, produced from seed in modern times, no one has yet obtained a purely Blue Rose, and its former existence may well seem to us incredible.
Besides the Moorish cultivation in Spain, the Rose has been an object of culture to a great extent in other countries.It has been cultivated principally for the beauty of its flowers, but in many parts of Europe and Asia, and in the north of Africa, its culture has been pursued for commercial purposes. Of its abundance in Palestine, some conception may be formed from the statement of travelers, that they have not only seen them wild and in great profusion in the vicinity of Jerusalem, but have found them in hedges, intermingled with pomegranate trees. Doubday states that, when the Eastern Christians made one of their processions in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem, which continued some two hours, many persons were present with sacks full of rose petals, which they threw by handfuls on the people, and in such immense quantities, that many were covered with them, and they were scattered all over the pavement. 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 Tæssa 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 India for the wholesomeness of its air and the beauty and extent of its rose gardens. The rose-fields, which occupy many hundred acres in the neighborhood, are described as, at the proper season, extremely beautiful. They are cultivated for distillation and for making‘Attar of Roses.’” He states also, that “many roses were growing in the garden of the palace of Delhi, and the fountain pipes were carved with images of roses.” Another writer describes in glowing colors the beauty of Ghazepoor, the Gul-istan (the rose beds,) of Bengal. “In the spring of the year, an extent of miles around the town presents to the eye a continual garden of roses, than which nothing can be more beautiful and fragrant. The sight is perfectly dazzling; the plain, as far as the eye can reach, extending in the same bespangled carpet of red and green. The breezes, too, are loaded with the sweet odor which is wafted far across the river Ganges.”
These statements sufficiently evince that the Rose was not only valued by the Hindoos as an article of commerce, but was intimately associated with their ideas of pleasure and enjoyment.
Persia, however, was, above all other countries, preëminent for roses. “Sir John Chardin, in 1686, found the gardens of the Persians without parterres, labyrinths, and other ornaments of European gardens, but filled with lilies, peach trees, and roses; and all modern travelers bear testimony to the esteem in which this flower is held in the East.” Sir Wm. Ousley tells us, in his travels in Persia, in 1819, that when he entered the flower garden belonging to the Governor of the Castle, near Farso, he was overwhelmed with roses; and Jackson, in hisJourney, etc., says that the roses of the Sinan Nile, or Garden of the Nile, are unequalled; and mattresses are made of their leaves, for men of rank to recline upon. Buckingham speaks of the rose plantations 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 thewhole 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 with the ever-replenished stems. * * * But in this delicious garden of Negaaristan, the eye and the smell are not the only senses regaled by the presence of the Rose: the ear is enchanted by the wild and beautiful notes of multitudes of nightingales, whose warblings seem to increase in melody and softness, with the unfolding of their favorite flowers. Here, indeed, the stranger is more powerfully reminded, that he is in the genuine country of the nightingale and the Rose.” Rivers mentions that Sir John Malcolm told him, that when in Persia he had once breakfasted on an immense heap, or rather mount, of roses, which the Persians had raised in honor of him. The rose of Cashmere has been long celebrated in the East, for its brilliancy and delicacy of odor—