ROSES AND THEIR CULTURE 213 



And so are some roses. But not all, happily. 

 Whatever the size of a garden therefore I re- 

 peat, and wherever it may be, roses of one kind 

 or another are to be anticipated and planned 

 for and prepared for. Hence a knowledge of 

 the rose in its variously embodied forms is de- 

 sirable if not essential. I am therefore going 

 to begin at the beginning — not of the rose's 

 history, for that is too far back in the dim 

 past, but at the beginning of the knowledge and 

 understanding of roses as we have them to-day 

 available for gardens. 



This beginning has to do with the classes of 

 roses; and when these classes are understood 

 many of the questions that puzzle the casual 

 observer of the flower's peculiarities — fancied — 

 will be answered. There are, in the first place, 

 roses from practically every part of the northern 

 hemisphere, "from the mountains of Mexico to 

 Hudson's Bay, from the coast of Barbary to 

 Sweden, in Lapland and Siberia, from Spain to 

 the Indies, China and Kamschatka." Half the 

 species have been found in Asia and of these a 

 little more than half are natives of Russian do- 

 minions and the country adjoining; one comes 

 from Persia, fifteen come from China and two 

 of these also are found in northern India, to- 

 gether with four others found only there. 



