A Chapter on Roses 259 



of the rose to infinity, as far as any plant can express that 

 quality, then are we no metaphysician. 



There is certainly something instinctive and true in that 

 favorite fancy of the poets - - that roses are the type or 

 symbol of female loveliness - 



"Know you not our only 



Rival flower the human? 

 Loveliest weight, on lightest foot - 

 Joy-abundant woman," 



sings Leigh Hunt for the roses. And, we will add, it is 

 striking and curious that refined and careful culture has the 

 same effect on the outward conformation of the rose that it 

 has on feminine beauty. The tea and the Bourbon roses 

 may be taken as an illustration of this. They are the last 

 and finest product of the most perfect culture of the garden; 

 and do they not, in their graceful airy forms, their subdued 

 and bewitching odors, and their refined and delicate colors, 

 body forth the most perfect symbol of the most refined and 

 cultivated Imogen or Ophelia that it is possible to conceive? 

 We claim the entire merit of pointing this out, and leave it 

 for some poet to make himself immortal by! 



There are odd, crotchety persons among horticulturists, 

 who correspond to old bachelors in society, that are never 

 satisfied to love any thing in particular, because they have 

 really no affections of their own to fix upon any object, and 

 who are always, for instance, excusing their want of devo- 

 tion to the rose, under the pretence that among so many 

 beautiful varieties it is impossible to choose. 



Undoubtedly there is an embarras de richesses in the mul- 

 titude of beautiful varieties that compose the groups and 

 subdivisions of the rose family. So many lovely forms and 

 colors are there, dazzling the eye, and attracting the senses, 

 that it requires a man or woman of nerve as well as taste, 

 to decide and select. Some of the great rose-growers con- 

 tinually try to confuse the poor amateur by their long cata- 

 logues, and by their advertisements about "acres of roses." 

 (Mr. Paul, an English nurseryman, published, in June last, 



