THE MUSK ROSE. 153 



in the fragrant groves of which they love to de- 

 scribe their ' bulbul,' or nightingale, as enchant- 

 ing them witfcits tuneful notes. The probability 

 that this is the famed rose of Persia is strength- 

 ened by the fact that it is much more fragrant 

 in the evening, or in the cool weather of autumn, 

 than at any other time or season, and probably in 

 the hot climate of Persia, only so in the coolness 

 of night, when nightingales delight to sing. A 

 recent traveller also remarks that the roses of 

 Persia are remarkably small and fragrant. There 

 are, doubtless, many seminal varieties of the 

 species ; their flowers differing in colour, but pos- 

 sessing the leading features of the original. Oli- 

 vier, who travelled in the first six years of the 

 French republic, mentions a rose tree at Ispahan, 

 called the f Chinese Rose Tree,' fifteen feet high, 

 formed by the union of several stems, each four 

 or five inches in diameter. Seeds from this tree 

 were sent to Paris, and .produced the common 

 Musk Rose. It seems therefore possible and pro- 

 bable, that this has been the parent of nearly all 



from his own lips, told in his peculiar spirited manner while he 

 resided here. ' A breakfast was given to us at a beautiful spot 

 near the Hazar Bagh, or thousand gardens, in the vicinity of 

 Shiraz ; and we were surprised and delighted to find that we 

 were to enjoy this meal on a stack of roses. On this a carpet was 

 laid, and we sat cross-legged like the natives. The stack, which 

 was as large as a common one of hay in England, had been 

 formed without much trouble from the heaps of rose leaves, 

 collected before they were sent into the city to be distilled.' 



