Chap. 10.] THE ROSE. 313 



of rose, too, called the " Grecian " rose by our people, and 

 "lychnis" 63 by the Greeks: it grows nowhere except in 

 humid soils, and has never more than five petals : it does not 

 exceed the violet in size, and is destitute of smell. There is 

 another kind, again, known to us as the " Grsecula," 64 the 

 petals of which are tightly rolled together, and which never 

 open except when pressed in the hand, it having always the 

 appearance, in fact, of being in bud : the petals of it are re- 

 markably large. Another kind, again, springs from a stem 

 like that of the mallow, the leaves being similar to those of 

 the olive the name given to it is " macetum." 65 There is 

 the rose of autumn, too, known to us as the " coroniola," 66 

 which is of a middle size, between the varieties just mentioned. 

 All these kinds, however, are destitute of smell, with the 

 exception of the coroniola, and the one which grows on the 

 bramble : 67 so extended is the scope for fictitious 68 productions ! 

 And, indeed, the genuine rose, for the most part, is indebted 

 for its qualities to the nature of the soil. That of Cyrense" is 

 the most odoriferous of all, and hence it is that the unguents 

 of that place are so remarkably fine : at Carthage, again, in 

 Spain, there are early 70 roses throughout all the winter. The 

 temperature, too, of the climate is not without its influence : 

 for in some years we find the roses much less odoriferous than 

 in others ; in addition to which, their smell is always more 

 powerful when grown in dry soils 71 than in humid ones. The 



63 The Lychnis, Fee remarks, is erroneously classed by Pliny among 

 the roses. It is generally agreed among naturalists that it is the garden 

 flower, the Agrostemma coronaria of Linnaeus ; which, however, does not 

 grow ill humid soils, but in steep, rocky places. 



64 Or "small Greek" rose. Some commentators have identified it with 

 the Rosa silvestris, odorata, flore albo of C. Bauhin, a wild white rose. 



65 Sillig thinks that this may mean the " Macedonian" rose. Another 

 reading is " moseheuton." Fee says that it is not a rose at all, but one of 

 the Malvaceae belonging to the genus Alcsea ; one variety of which is 

 called the Alccea rosa. 



66 Or " little chaplet." Possibly a variety of the Eglantine, the Rosa 

 canina or dog-rose, Fee suggests. 



57 The Eglantine. 



68 This seems to be the meaning of " tot modis adulteratur :" the roses 

 without smell appearing to him to be not genuine roses. 



69 The Rosa Damascena of Miller, Fee thinks, our Damascus rose. 



70 The earliest rose in France and Spain, Fee says, is the ** pompon," 

 the variety Pomponaea of the Rosa centifolia. 



71 This is consistent with modern experience. 



