LIBRARY 
NEW YORK 
BOTANICAL 
GARDEN 
THE BOOK OF THE ROSE 
CHAPTHR. I 
INTRODUCTION 
Ir is a common saying that the love of flowers is 
universal ; and it is not surprising, seeing that the 
tendency of the age is to subdivide occupations 
and interests and make men specialists in smaller 
branches of subjects, that certain flowers have been 
selected for cultivation by persons who have given 
all their leisure, or even the whole of their time, to 
the study of them. As the Rose has been entitled 
the queen of flowers without serious dispute for 
nearly twenty-five centuries, special subjects of such 
a queen may naturally be looked for; and they may 
be found among such as style themselves Rosarians, 
\) who endeavour to cultivate the Rose in such a 
manner as to get the finest and most beautiful 
blooms. 
One would naturally suppose that those who study 
and pursue this subject might be credited with a 
special knowledge of it at least, if not with some 
eeuthority ; but, oddly enough, a certain number of 
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