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A GUIDE TO FLORICULTURE. 



are decorated with them, as if their presence was essential 

 to their existence : 



" Where the soft Persian maid the breath inhales, 

 Of love-sick Roses, wooed by nightingales." 



The Rose was originally dedicated to Aurora, being the 

 emblem of youth, and to Venus as the emblem of beauty 

 and love ; to Cupid, that harbinger of danger to the female 

 heart, from whom it was given to Harpocrates, the god of 

 silence. The Heathen Mythology is thus partly made up 

 by this delightful and prolific flower, the theme of whose 

 beauty has been sung by our most celebrated poets, afford- 

 ing so much subject for their versatile pens, operating on 

 their minds as the dew drops afford nourishment to the 

 exhausted plant, after the influence of the exuberant sun. 



The varieties of color in the Rose are innumerable, as 

 well as difference in habit. It is easily cultivated either by 

 seed, cuttings, layering, budding, and by suckers at the 

 root. Each kind has its peculiar system, and must be 

 treated accordingly. To propagate the hardy or garden 

 Rose from seed, the hip which contains the seed should 

 be kept dry, rubbed out, and sown in the spring. Some- 

 times the seed will require one year to germinate, unless 

 brought forward in a hot-house, which is not often in the 

 possession of the amateur. It should be sown in a shady 

 situation, and be kept moist. The soil should be a leaf 

 mould and sand, equal parts. If the seed is sown in pans 

 or boxes, it could be more conveniently removed into dif- 

 ferent situations, if found necessary. The seed should not 

 be planted over a quarter of an inch deep. As the seed- 

 lings grow and show about four leaves, pot them off, and 



