VARIETIES DESCRIBED. 3 



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 agri- 

 cultural districts of England, where, in the farm 

 and cottage gardens, the Cabbage Rose and the 

 Double Wall-flower are the most esteemed in- 

 mates; forming, in their turns, with a sprig of 

 rosemary, the Sunday bouquet of the respectable 

 farm-servant and cottager. 



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 once wrote to a very old rose 

 amateur in France for information on this point. 

 He informed 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, however, quite a dif- 

 ferent name in France, for it is called the ' Rose 

 a 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 1 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. 



B 2 



