46 



THE DAMASK EOSE. 



(eosa damascena.) 



Rosier Damas. 



The ' Damask Eose ' is a name familiar to every 

 reader of English poetry, as it lias been eulogised 

 more than any other rose, and its colom- 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 ' 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 mea- 

 sure lost sight of ; for, in plain unvarnished prose, 

 it must be stated that the original Damask Eose, 

 and the earlier varieties, such as must have been 

 the roses of our poets, though peculiarly fragrant, 

 are most ud interesting 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 



