THE ROSE-GARDEN. 679 



and the dog-rose {Rosa canina) are also common there. An anecdote is told 

 of the Rosa hibernica, an insignificant shrub, which will bear repeating, even if 

 ■an invention : — The Botanical Society of Dublin one day announced a prize of 

 fifty guineas to him who should send them a new plant indigenous to Ireland. 

 In reply to the invitation of the pleasantly patriotic savans, this rose was sent, 

 and the sender, saith the story-teller, received the fifty guineas ; it is said 

 now to be Rosa spinosissima, grown on remarkably sterile soil. 



1829. Germany is the least rich in roses of any other European country, 

 Rosa iurbinata and Rosa arvensis being among the most interesting. The 

 Swiss mountains and the chain of the Alps are rich in roses. Rosa aljnna is 

 a very elegant shrub, with sohtary red flowers, and has furnished many beau- 

 tiful varieties to cultivation. Rosa spirifolia here also exhales an odour of 

 turpentine, and is remarkable for its shiny foliage. Rosa ruhifolia is also 

 common to the Swiss and French Alps ; its reddish hue and pretty flowers of 

 spotted rose-colour contrast finely with the foliage of other trees. Italy and 

 Spain have also some species particularly their own : Rosa lyallinaria has 

 here grand purple flowers, united in twos or threes, and is found on Mount 

 Baldo ; Rosa moschata and Rosa hisjjanica. both grow in Spain, the last 

 having clear red flowers, and blooming in May. 



1830. The Evergreen-rose (Rosa sempervirens), common in the Balearic 

 isles, grows spontaneously in the south of Europe and on the Barbary coast, 

 its climbing bi-anches bearing a foliage always green and pleasant to look at, 

 intermingling with white odorous flowers. 



1S31. There are seventeen species of roses indigenous to France, according 

 to De Candolle. In the south, Rosa Eglanteria (a yellow rose), with many 

 charming varieties, gilds the shrubbery,— its coi'oUa a fine red, with varieties 

 approaching to j'ellowish red ; Rosa spinosissima is also here ; its white flowers 

 and yellow eyes have furnished many of the finest varieties to cultivation. 

 Rosa cinnamonica owes its name to the stem ; Rosa ^jarvifoUa (the Kose of 

 €hampagne) is one of the prettiest miniatm-e roses of the parterre ; its 

 flowers, always double, being a fine pm-ple : Rosa galltca, whose flowers natu- 

 rally produce a great variety of shades. In the eastern Pyrenees, Rosa mos- 

 chata grows spontaneously, — a fine rose, whose numerous flowers, borne in a 

 corymb, exhale a delicious odour, having a slight musky smell, and known in 

 French gardens as the Rose Manadine. Rosa alba is common in the hedges and 

 in every wooded hill, and is generally cultivated in our gai-dens, where it has 

 yielded numerous vai-ieties to cultivation ; Rosa canina is also common every- 

 ■where, yielding the stocks requu-ed for budding and grafting. It is evident, 

 from this rapid sketch of its natural distribution, that the Rose cannot be 

 said to be of Eastern oi-igin j it rather seems to have been universally dif- 

 fused, as it deserved to be. 



2 p2 



