THE ROSE AMATEUR'S GUIDE. PART I. THE SUMMER ROSE GARDEN. THE ROSE, Anacreon, Ode 51. "Friends! form your accents with mine, in singing the season of flowers, and the rose of spring. "The rose is the sweet perfume which the mouths of the gods exhale; the joy of mortals, the loveliest ornament of the Graces in the flowery season of love, and the dearest delight of Venus. "The rose is the object of the songs of the poets, the favourite plant of the Muses. 66 Though she wounds us with her thorns, we gather her with pleasure. What delight to hold this flower consecrated to love, and to breathe its sweet odours! "Ah! what should we be without the rose ? "Our poets sing of the rosy fingers of Aurora, the rosy arms of the Nymphs, the cheeks of Venus tinted with roses. "The rose is useful to the sick; she braves the duration of years; agreeable even in decay, she preserves the perfume of her youth. "What shall I say of her origin? When the Sea formed from her froth, and displayed on her waves, the beautiful Venus, brilliant with dew,-when Pallas sprang armed from the brain of Jupiter, the earth brought forth this admirable plant, a new B masterpiece of nature. Eager to hasten her blooming, the gods watered her with nectar, and then this immortal flower elevated herself majestically on her thorny column." The Queen of Flowers.* THE PROVENCE, OR CABBAGE, ROSE. (ROSA CENTIFOLIA.) Rosier Cent feuilles. THIS rose has long and deservedly been the favourite ornament of English gardens; and if, as seems very probable, it was the hundred-leaved rose of Pliny, and the favourite flower of the Romans, contributing in no small degree to the luxurious enjoyments of that great people, it claims attention as much for its high antiquity as for its intrinsic beauty. 1596 is given by botanists as the date of its introduction to our gardens. That "prince of gardeners," Miller, says that it is the prettiest of all roses; and this idea still prevails to a great extent in the agricultural districts of England, where, in the farm and cottage gardens, the Cabbage Rose and the Double Wall-Flower are the most esteemed inmates; forming in their turns, with a sprig of rosemary, the Sunday bouquet of the respectable farm-servant and cottager. * This pretty appellative is no new creation : more than 2000 years ago Sappho wrote: "If Jupiter wished to give to the flowers a Queen, the rose would be their Queen." The groves of Mount Caucasus are said to be its native places of growth, and also Languedoc and Provence; but the claims of these latter have been disputed. I lately wrote to a very old rose amateur in France for information on this point. He informs me that the species with single flowers is found in a wild state in the southern provinces ; it is therefore very probable that it was called the Provence Rose from growing more abundantly in that province: it has now, however, quite a different name in France, for it is called the "Rose à Cent Feuilles," from the botanical name, Rosa centifolia, or Hundred-leaved Rose. I must here confess that, when I was a young rose-fancier, this name often misled me, as I was very apt to think that it referred to the Scotch and other small and thickly-leaved roses, not for a moment supposing that the term was applied to the petals or flower-leaves. Hybrid roses, between this and Rosa gallica, are called Provence Roses by the French amateurs of the present day. Our Provence, or Cabbage, Rose is exceedingly varied in the form and disposition of its petals. In the following paragraphs I have confined myself to a description of those only that partake largely of the character of the common Cabbage, or Provence, Rose, and that are worthy of cultivation; the latter name, I find, is not used by some recent writers in the Gardener's Chronicle and elsewhere: they write |