1831.J nfJAUTIES OF liRITISU TliEES. ir,:> 



BEAUTIES OL' BlilTJSH TUEI-:^. 



bWO mistakes, to Avliicli reference is luiiJe elsewhere, were made 

 in the ilhistration of my article on I'opbrs in last month's 

 'Forestry,' viz., the first woodcut, named ' Poplars,' repre- 

 sented a group of Lombard}' Poplars ; and the second, named 

 'LombarJy Poplars,' was inserted by iuadvetence. 



The PiOSE. — Once more we seize the opportunity of attemptitii;' 

 the praises of a group of plants that have but small claim to rank 

 among forest trees ; for who is not glad to express his love for Poses ? 

 Does not the very name borne by this chiefest of flowers in almost 

 every language of Europe, ancient and modern, make one feel 

 p oetical ? The temperate regions of our northern hemisphere may 

 fairly challenge the luxuriance of the tropics or the weiixl flora of 

 Australia to rival the Pose. In this group Nature, lavish of beauty, 

 seems to defy the efforts of the systematic naturalist. One botanist, 

 Don, describes 202, another, Loudon, but 77 species of liose, whilst Sir 

 Joseph Hooker only recognises the existence of about thirty, which, 

 are really distinct. These are, however, practically endless in the 

 variety that a careful observation of wild forms and the cultivation of 

 hybrids and seedlings afford, so that Limueus himself expressed the 

 opinion that in this group Nature herself had prescribed no certain 

 limits to the species, and, while hundreds of new garden forms are 

 described annually, Frencli gardeners, more than thirty years ago, 

 boasted of 2,500 named varieties. Having its southern limit in India, 

 Abyssinia and ^lexico, and represented by but few species in the 

 New World, the home of some of the most beautiful species and 

 of the chief culture of the Pose is in Asia; but in England, whilst we 

 have forms which some botanists range under twelve, or under upwards 

 of thirty species, there are no less than five perfectly distinct groups of 

 Wild Poses recognised by every writer on the subject. We are not 

 now properly concerned with the charms of the Cabbage Pose of 

 Provence {Rosa centifolia), probably a native of Western Asia ; of the 

 sweet-scented Damask Kose {damascena), which Europe owes* pro- 

 bably to the Crusades, and England to Henry "S'lII.'s physician, 

 Dr. Linacre, the founder of the Poyal College of Pliysicians ; of the 

 Musk Eose {R. moschata), that we owe to Thomas Cromwell ; or of 

 Lady Bank's Pose {R hanksice), witli its numerous pendulous, 

 creamy clusters, or of the other natives of China {R. indica and 

 li. semperjiorcns) ; for we may truly say with old John Gerard, 

 'The Pose doth deserve the cheefest and most principall place 



