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THE MUSK EOSE. 



(rosa moschata.) 



Rosier Muscate, 



The White Musk Eose is one of the oldest in- 

 habitants of our gardens, and probably more 

 widely spread over the face of the earth than any 

 other rose. It is generally supposed that the attar 

 of roses is prepared in India from this species, and 

 that this is also the rose of the Persian poets,* 

 in the fragrant groves of which they love to de- 

 scribe their ' bulbul,' or nightingale, as enchanting 

 them with its tuneful notes. The probability that 

 this is the famed rose of Persia is strengthened 

 by the fact that it is much more fragrant in the 

 evening, or in the cool weather of autumn, than 

 at any other time or season, and probably in the 

 hot climate of Persia, only so in the coolness of 

 night, when nightingales delight to sing. A recent 

 traveller also remarks that the roses of Persia 



* The following anecdote is narrated by the late Sir John 

 Malcolm in his sketches of Persia. I haye, moreover, heard it 

 from his own lips, told in his peculiar spirited manner, while he 

 resided there. ' A breakfast was given to us at a beautiful spot 

 near the Hazar Bagh, or thousand gardens, in the vicinity of 

 Shiraz ; and we were surprised and delighted to find that we 

 were to enjoy this meal on a stack of roses. On this a carpet was 

 laid, and we sat cross-legged like the natives. The stack, which 

 was as large as a common one of hay in England, had been 

 formed without much trouble from the heaps of rose-leaves, 

 collected before they were sent in the city to be distilled.' 



