108 GARDEN FLOWERS. 



tliougli they are to oriental ears, are described 

 by English travellers as far inferior to those of 

 our bird of night. 



The French rose (Bosa Gallica) is also a 

 common flower in onr gardens. It has large 

 open flat flowers, on stiff stalks. It grows wild 

 in some parts of France, and at Geneva ; and is 

 found in Austria and Piedmont. This rose is 

 easily scattered by the winds, and forms a 

 great contrast to the compact, closely-folded 

 cabbage rose. Though wild in France, it is 

 cultivated at the little town of Provins, and 

 also at Fontenay aux Koses, near Paris, for the 

 conserve made of its petals. The York and 

 Lancaster, with its flowers variegated with red 

 and white, is one of the varieties of the French 

 rose. It delighted our forefathers, by blooming 

 at a season when they deemed it an auspicious 

 token that the civil wars should cease, and the 

 union of the two emblematic roses, in the per- 

 sons of Henry vii. and Elizabeth of York, 

 should bring peace and happiness to the long 

 distracted nation. It is said that the significant 

 colours of red and white, were never, till this 

 period, seen united in the symbolic flower of 

 England, and great crowds went from the city 

 to witness this natural prodigy. 



The damask rose too, (^Rosa Damascena^ is 

 common with us, and if it is not a native of 

 the neighbourhood of Damascus, yet it was 

 planted many centuries since in that ancient 

 city, whose name it bears; and now, both in its 

 red and white varieties, it still decks the gar- 



