shape, and in its colour it is surpassingly so; its flowers are of the most delicate blush in their outer petals: inner petals bright rose. Princesse de Lamballe is one of the finest in this division, possessing all the characters of the species in its foliage, branches, and flowers: these are of the purest white, and of the most perfect and beautiful shape. Queen of Denmark, an old, but estimable, variety, produces flowers of first-rate excellence as prize-flowers: so much was this esteemed when first raised from seed, that plants were sent from Germany to this country at five guineas each. Sophie de Marsilly is a most delicate and beautiful mottled rose, with flowers very double and perfect in shape; when just expanding so as to show the interior of the flower, this rose is of the most exquisite beauty.

The varieties of this family form a beautiful mass, not by any means gay and dazzling, but chaste and delicate, and contrast well with groups of the dark varieties of Rosa Gallica and hybrid China roses: they also make good standards, often growing to a large size and uniting well with the stock: they always bloom abundantly, and bear close pruning; in this respect they may be treated as recommended for the French roses. The varieties of this family, for the most part, are too double to bear seed in this country: it is not therefore necessary to give any directions for hybridising.

THE DAMASK ROSE.

(ROSA DAMAScena.)

Rosier Damas.

The "Damask Rose" is a name familiar to every reader of English poetry, as it has been eulogised more than any other rose, and its colour described with a poet's licence. The author of Eothen, in that lively book of eastern travel, remarks while at Damascus, that the rose-trees

66

grow to an immense height and size; those I saw were all of the kind we call damask." He is, however, so enraptured with the roses that he leaves the sober path of prose in the following passage:"High, high, above your head, and on every side all down to the ground, the thicket is hemmed in and choked up by the interlacing boughs that droop with the weight of roses, and load the slow air with their damask breath."

In these glowing descriptions the truth, as is frequently the case in poetry, has been in a measure lost sight of: for, in plain unvarnished prose, it must be stated that the original Damask Rose, and the earlier varieties, such as must have been the roses of our poets, though peculiarly fragrant, are most uninteresting trees: however, we must not ungratefully depreciate them, for they are the

types of our present new, beautiful, and fragrant varieties. The original species with single flowers is said to be a native of Syria, from whence it was introduced to Europe in 1573. When Saladin took Jerusalem from the crusaders in 1187, to purify the walls of the Mosque of Omar, which had been used as a Christian Church, he caused them to be washed with rose-water brought from Damascus: according to Sanuto, a Venetian author, 500 camel-loads were used in the process; varieties of it are still grown in the gardens of Damascus.

The branches of the Damask rose are green, long, and diffuse in their growth; leaves pubescent, and in general placed far asunder; prickles on most of the varieties abundant. To those old members of this family, the red and the white monthly, which by some peculiar excitability often put forth flowers in warm, moist autumns, nearly all our perpetual roses owe their origin, so that we can now depend upon having roses as fragrant in October as in June. Lancaster rose, with pale striped

The York and

flowers, is one

of the oldest varieties of this division in our gardens. There is perhaps a little too much sameness of character in some of the varieties of the Damask rose; their gradations of colour are sometimes too delicate to be distinct, but the following are pretty and distinct.

La Ville de Bruxelles is an old variety, with

rose-coloured flowers, very large and double: this is a distinct and fine rose. Madame Hardy was raised from seed in the Luxembourg gardens, by Monsieur Hardy in 1832. This is not a pure Damask rose, as its leaves have scarcely any pubescence; but a more magnificent rose does not exist, for its luxuriant habit and large and finely shaped flowers place it quite first among the white roses: its flowers are, however, too often disfigured by a green bud in the centre.

La Cherie is of a delicate blush, with the centre of the flower pink, cupped, very double, and firstrate in quality. Madame Zoutman, or, according to some, Madame Söetmans, is a most beautiful rose of a delicate cream-colour, slightly tinted with fawn: although widely different in habit, its flowers much resemble those of that fine Hybrid Provence, Comte Plater. Madame Stoltz is a pretty rose, with flowers of the palest lemon; and Pulcherie, with pure white flowers, cupped, and very neat and elegant in their shape, is quite worthy of culture. All the Damask roses are highly fragrant.

The roses of this neat and elegant family have a pretty effect arranged in a mass; like the varieties of Rosa Alba, they are so beautiful in contrast with the dark roses: they also form fine standards, more particularly Madame Hardy, La Ville de Bruxelles, and Madame Zoutman, which will into magnificent trees, if their culture

grow

is attended to.

The pruning recommended for Rosa Gallica will also do for these roses.

The good roses of this family do not bear seed. freely, being too double, and it is not now worth while to raise seedlings from inferior varieties.

THE SCOTCH ROSE.

(ROSA SPINOSISSIMA.)

Rosier Pimprenelle.

The varieties of this distinct and pretty family owe their origin to the Dwarf Wild Rose of the North of England and Scotland, nearly all of them having been raised from seed by the Scotch nurserymen in some of their catalogues two or three hundred names are given, but in many cases these names are attached to flowers without distinctive qualities. In my catalogue the names of a few of the best varieties are given, but even these vary much with the seasons; for I remarked that in the summer of 1836, after the peculiar cold and ungenial spring, and again in 1837, they departed much from their usual characters, and bloomed very imperfectly in warm and early seasons they flower in May, and are then highly ornamental.