72 PARSONS ON THE ROSE. 



Greeks also deemed it a great addition to the fragrance 

 of the Rose to plant garlic near its roots. The island of 

 Rliodes, which has successively borne many names, was 

 particularly indebted to the culture of roses for that which 

 it bears at this day. It was the Isle of Roses, the Greek 

 for Rose being Fodov, — Rodon. 



Medals of Rhodes, whose reverse impressions present a 

 rose in bloom on one side, and the sunflower on the other, 

 are to be found even now in cabinets of curiosities. 



Extravagance in roses, among the Romans, kept pace 

 with the increase of their power, until they at length de- 

 sired them at all seasons. At first they procured their 

 winter's supply from Egypt, but subsequently attained 

 themselves such skill in their culture as to produce them 

 in abundance, even at the coldest season of the year; 

 and, according to Seneca, by means of green-houses, 

 heated by pipes filled with hot water. During the reign 

 of Domitian, the forcing of roses was carried to such per- 

 fection, and flowers produced in winter in so great abund- 

 ance, that those brought from Egypt, as before mention- 

 ed, excited only the contempt of the citizens of the 

 world's metropolis. 



This fact, as also handed down to us by the epigram 

 of Martial, is of great assistance in estimating the import- 

 ance of rose-culture at that period, and in showing how 

 the art of cultivating this plant had spread, and how it 

 was already far advanced among the ancient Romans and 

 their contemporaries. 



If the Egyptians cultivated roses for transportation to 

 Rome during the winter, they must have had very exten- 

 sive plantations for the purpose. The exportation could 

 not have been of loose flowers, for they would have been 

 withered long before the termination of the voyage ; nei- 

 ther could it have been of rooted plants in a dormant 

 state, as nurserymen now send them to every part of the 

 world, because the Romans had at that time no means of 



