46 THE DAMASK KOSE. 



is said to be a native of Syria, from whence it was 

 introduced to Europe in 1573. When Saladin 

 took Jerusalem from the Crusaders in 1187, to 

 purify the walls of the Mosque of Omar, which 

 had been used as a Christian church, he caused 

 them to be washed with rose-water brought from 

 Damascus : according to Sanuto, a Venetian 

 author^ 500 camel-loads of Damask roses were 

 used in the process. 



The branches of the Damask Eose are green, 

 long, and diffuse in their growth ; leaves pubes- 

 cent, and in general placed far asunder ; prickles 

 on most of the varieties abundant. To those old 

 members of this family, the Eed and the White 

 Monthly, which by some peculiar excitability 

 often put forth flowers in warm, moist autumns, 

 nearly all our perpetual roses owe their origin, so 

 that we can now depend upon having roses as 

 fragrant in October as in June. The York and 

 Lancaster rose, with pale striped flowers, is one 

 of the oldest varieties of this division in our 

 gardens. There is perhaps a little too much same- 

 ness of character in some of the varieties of the 

 Damask Eose ; their gradations of colour are some- 

 times too delicate to be distinct, but the following 

 are pretty and distinct. 



La Ville de Bruxelles is an old variety, with 

 rose-coloured flowers, very large and double : this 

 is a distinct and fine rose. Madame Hardy was 

 raised from seed in the Luxembourg gardens, by 



