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ON THE CULTURE OF TALL OR CLIMBING ROSES. 



The rose is unquestionably the most po- 

 pular flower known, and its geographical 

 range embraces, according to Loudon, (Arb. 

 Brit.) Europe, and the temperate regions of 

 Asia, Africa, and America: in all these it 

 is said to be found wild, but not in Austra- 

 lia. Now I have it from an eye-witness,* 

 that in the wilds of Australia the rose is 

 seen in abundance, in the form of sweet- 

 briar ; it seems, therefore, to be as univer- 

 sally distributed as it is universally admired. 

 From the language of holy writ it is clear 

 that the rose was held in high esteem in the 

 days of King Solomon ; for if we compare 

 the sentence, "I am the rose of Sharon," 

 as rendered by King James' translators, 

 Avith the same sentence in the Douay ver- 

 sion of the Bible, " I am the flower of the 

 field," and add the sentence, " I was exalt- 

 ed as a rose-plant in Jericho," (Eccles. 

 xxiv. 18) we may conclude that in the val- 

 ley of the Jordan there were fields of roses, 

 and that the rose was there held in such 

 favour as bordered on veneration, and this 

 8000 years before our day. In Geramb's 

 Pilgrimage to Palestine in 1831, we find 

 the following passages : — " The plain of 

 Sharon which I traversed, so extolled in 

 Scripture, was enamelled with flowers," — 

 " Rama, nearly on the borders of the plain 

 of Sharon, is in a delightful situation," — 

 " The weather was brilliant, and reminded 

 me of the beautiful spring days of Italy ;" 

 and farther on he adds, that in climbing the 

 hills of Judea, " where there is not a trace 

 of a road or of a plant save a few olive 

 trees and some oaks, and these look as if 

 scathed with the lightning; the eye, sad- 

 dened with the sterility of the soil, needed 

 some relief, and he turned from this scene 

 of rocks piled one upon another, to look 

 back at that beautiful plain of Sharon and 

 the sea which bounds it." We may now 

 see the force of the phrase in the inspired 

 song, "I am the rose of Sharon;" for if 

 Sharon be thus lovely in ruin and under 

 oppression, and after earthquakes, plagues, 

 and plunderings, surely its rosy morn and 

 its palmy day must have been glorious. 



The Romans are said to have rioted 

 among roses, and throughout Christen- 

 dom the rose has constantly been cultivated 

 around the dwellings of both rich and poor. 



* Bishop Wilson, o: Ilobart Town. 



We read glowing descriptions of " Syria, 

 land of roses,'''' yet we find, from the clear- 

 est evidence, that England boasts many a 

 splendid rose, unknown and unsurpassed in 

 Syria. The materials are in our own hands, 

 and therefore there is no reasonable cause 

 to hinder us from realizing fields of roses, 

 aye, and trees of roses large as our wishes. 

 I need not say that this cannot be accom- 

 plished if we are to confine our ideas of a 

 rose-tree to the tuft of tiny rose-twigs on 

 a dog-rose stem tied to an iron poker or a 

 square stick, whose outline (especially in 

 winter) resembles that of a besom, with the 

 handle in the earth and the brush-part in 

 the air. 



Let no one imagine that I wish to speak 

 slightingly of the ordinary culture of roses. 

 I only wish to push the subject far beyond 

 its present limits, to carry roses into fresh 

 pastures, and unite them to living stakes or 

 props, as " vines are wedded to their elms" 

 in Portugal and Spain. 



The ivy, standing in its own strength, is 

 but a sorry shrub, and when unassisted with 

 props, or unattended with culture, it only 

 creeps and clambers, a lowly, uninteresting 

 evergreen, forming a monotonous mass of 

 dense and dingy foliage, draining the earth 

 of moisture and nourishment, and thereby 

 starving outright every vegetable in its vi- 

 cinity which it had failed to choke wdth its 

 fleece of leaves ; yet we find the ivy, as at 

 Wrotham Park, for example, standing on 

 the lawn supported by its own stem, and 

 forming a fine globular head. There are 

 ivy trees here 30 feet high, with a conical 

 outline like that of the Arbor vitas. These 

 examples may show how the outlines and 

 habits of plants maybe altered by subject- 

 ing them to a particular mode of treatment 

 in the training and propping. The honey- 

 suckle, unassisted, is little to be admired in 

 its squat and shapeless mass ; yet every 

 one will bear witness to its charms when 

 seen in bloom entwined on tree or bower. 

 A mountain ash in the grounds here has 

 held up to admiration a plant of the honey- 

 suckle high and wide for many years, A 

 tall spruce fir propped for a long time an- 

 other honeysuckle close to the above-men- 

 tioned specimen. I mention this evergreen 

 tree with its honeysuckle to prove that 



