228 A GUIDE TO FLORICULTURE. 



ROSE. 



(ROSA.) 



" If, on creation's morn, the King of Heaven 

 To shrubs and flowers a sovereign queen had given, 

 O, beauteous Rose ! He had anointed thee, 

 Of shrubs and flowers the sovereign queen to be ! 

 The spotless emblem of unsullied truth; 

 The smile of beauty, and the glow of youth; 

 The garden's pride, the grace of vernal bowers, 

 The blush of meadows, and the eye of flowers.'* 



The Rose is generally considered the Queen of Flowers, 

 and deservedly so; its beauty, fragrance, and majestic 

 appearance, unquestionably command our admiration. 

 The attributes of this inestimable beauty have never lost 

 one atom of merit, from its earliest culture down to the 

 present time. It is so well known to the common obser- 

 ver, at first sight, as to require no particular description, 

 and all the eulogium lavished on this prominent beauty, 

 or any of its varieties, would fall short in doing them 

 justice. 



Many rivals of late have been brought forward ; the 

 most formidable among them is the Dahlia, equal in beauty 

 but deficient in odor, leaving the Rose still the diadem of 

 the world, in floral greatness. Could the Dahlia be once 

 endowed with that essential to perfection, a grateful fra- 

 grance, then, indeed, might the lover of that flower have 

 some pretension to rivalship ; until then, the Rose, the 

 queen of flowers, must and will reign, predominant. 



