312 Pliny's natueal histoet. [Book XXI. 



small. The essential points of difference in the rose are the 

 number^^ of the petals, the comparative number^^ of thorns on 

 the stem, the colour, and the smell. The number of the petals, 

 which is never less than live, goes on increasing in amount, 

 till we find one variety with as many as a hundred, and 

 thence known as the *' centifolia :"^' in Italy, it is to be found 

 in Campania, and in Greece, in the vicinity of Philippi, though 

 this last is not the place of its naturaP^ growth. Mount Pan- 

 gseus,^^ in the same vicinity, produces a rose with numerous 

 petals of diminutive size : the people of those parts are in the 

 habit of transplanting it, a method which greatly tends to im- 

 prove its growth. This kind, however, is not remarkable for 

 its smell, nor yet is the rose which has u very large or very 

 broad petal : indeed, we may state in a few words, that the 

 best proof of the perfume of the flower is the comparative 

 roughness of the calyx. ^" 



Caepio, who lived in the reign of the Emperor Tiberius, as- 

 serts that the centifolia is never employed for chaplets, except 

 at the extreme^^ points of union as it were, being remarkable 

 neither for its smelP^ nor its beauty. There is another variety 



in all probability. Fee makes mention here of a kind called the Rosa 

 myriacantha by Decandolle (the "thousand-thorn rose"), which is found in 

 great abundance in the south of Europe, and other parts of it. 



^5 Fee remarks on this passage, that the beauty of the flower and the 

 number of the petals are always in an inverse proportion to the number of 

 thorns, which disappear successively the more carefully the plant is culti- 

 vated. 



55 This is most probably the meaning of " Asperitate, levore." 



^"^ Still known as the " Rosa centifolia." Its petals sometimes exceed 

 three hundred in number ; and it is the most esteemed of all for its frag- 

 rant smell. 



^^ '* Non suae terrag proventu." 



^"^ This rose is mentioned also by Theophrastus, Hist. Plant. B. vi. c. 6. 

 From the description that Pliny gives of it, Fee is inclined to think that 

 it is some variety of the Rosa rubrifolia, which is often found in moun- 

 tainous localities. 



«" This assertion is borrowed from Theophrastus, Hist. Plant. B. vi. c. 

 6. Fee remarks that there is no truth in it. It is not improbable, how- 

 ever, that the word "cortex" here may mean, not the calyx, but tlie bark 

 of the stem, in reference to its exemptiom from thorns. The rpaxv to 

 KUTw of Theophrastus would seem to admit of that rendering. See Note 

 ^ above. 



61 "Extremas vclut ad cardines." 



62 This is not tlie case with the Rosa centifolia of modern botany. See 

 Note ^^ above. It is not improbable, however, that the reading is "pro- 

 babilis," and that this passage belongs to the next sentence. 



