232 General Notices. 



am the flower of the field," and add the sentence, "I was exalted as a 

 rose-plant in Jericho," (Eccles. xxiv. 18) we may conclude, that, in the val- 

 ley of the Jordan, there were fields of roses, and that the rose was there 

 held in such favor as bordered on veneration, and this 3,000 years be- 

 fore our day. In Geramb's Pilgrimage to Palestine in 1831, we find the 

 following passages : — " The plain of Sharon which I traversed, so extolled 

 in Scripture, was enamelled with flowers," — " Rama, nearly on the borders 

 of the plain of Sharon, is in a delightful situation," — " The weather was 

 fbrilliant, and reminded me of the beautiful spring days of Italy;" and 

 tfarther on, he adds, that, in climbing the hills of Judea, — " where there is 

 no% a trace of a road or of a plant save a few olive trees and some oaks, and 

 these look as if scathed with the lightning, — the eye, saddened with the 

 sterility of the soil, needed some relief, and he turned from this scene of 

 ■rock^, piled one upon another, to luok back at that beautiful plain of Sharon 

 and the sea which bounds it." We may now see the force of the phrase in 

 rthe inspired song, " I am the rose of Sharon ;" for, if Sharon be thus lovely 

 in ruin and under oppression, and after earthquakes, plagues, and plunder- 

 ings, surely its rosy morn and its palmy day must have been glorious. 



The Roraans are said to have rioted among roses, and throughout Chris- 

 tendom the i'ose has constantly been cultivated around the dwellings of both 

 rich and poor. 



•We readglewing descriptions of " Syria, land of roses,'''' yet we find, 

 from the clearest evidence, that England boasts many a splendid rose, un- 

 known and unsurpassed in Syria. The materials are in our own hands, and 

 tlierefore there is no reasonable cause to hinder us from realizing fields of 

 roses, eya, and trees of roses large as our wishes. I need not say that this 

 cannot be aooomplished if we are to confine our ideas of a rose-tree to the 

 tuft of tiny Tose-twigs on a dog-rose stem tied to an iron poker or a square 

 slick, whose outline, (especially in winter) resembles that of a besom, with 

 the handle in the earth and the brush-part in the air. 



Let no one imagine that I wish to speak slightingly of the ordinary cul- 

 ture 'of roses. I only wish to push the subject far beyond its present limits, 

 <to carry roses into fresh pastures, and unite them to living stakes or props, 

 as " vines are wedded to their elms " in Portugal and Spain. 



The ivy, standing in its own strength, is but a sorry shrub, and when un- 

 assisted with props, or unattended with culture, it only creeps and clambers, 

 a lowly, uninteresting evergreen, forming a monotonous mass of dense and 

 dingy foliage, draining the earth of moisture and nourishment, and thereby 

 starving outright every vegetable in its vicinity which it had failed to choke 

 with its fleece of leaves ; yet we find the ivy, as at Wrotham Park for ex- 

 ample, standing on the lawn supported by its own stem, and forming a fine 

 globular head. There are ivy trees here 30 feel high, with a conical out- 

 line like that of the Arbor Vitaj. These examples may show how the out- 

 lines and habits of plants may be altered by subjecting them to a particular 

 mode of treatment in the training and propping. The honeysuckle, unas- 

 sisted, is little to be admired in its squat and shapeless mass ; yet every one 

 will bear witness to its charms when seen to bloom entwined on tree or 



