784 ARBORETUM AND FRUTICETUM. PART III. 



every country in the northern hemisphere, both in the Old and New World. 

 It extends from Sweden to the north of Africa, and from Kamtschatka 

 to Bengal and China. In North America, it ranges between the Hudson 

 and the mountains of Mexico ; but it is not found in South America, or in 

 Australia. According to Dr. Lindley (Ros. Monog., p. 29.), the species 

 are all included between 70 and 20 north latitude, except R. Monte- 

 ziimce, from Mexico, which is found in 19 north latitude, at an elevation 

 of more than 9300ft. above the level of the sea. 18 species, or sorts, 

 are natives of Russia and the adjacent countries; 5 are common both to 

 Europe and Asia; 15 have been found in China; and 6 in the north 

 of India. Europe has 25 species, of which five sixths are found be- 

 tween the limits of 40 and 50 north latitude. " To the south of this 

 range, they decrease in number much more rapidly than to the north. 

 Britain, which lies just without its northern limits, has 10 species, Den- 

 mark 7, and Holland 13; whilst in Spain, Portugal, and the Levant, which 

 bear nearly the same relation to it on the south, only 4 species have been 

 observed. Many are peculiar to certain districts, as R. reversa, R. myria- 

 cantha, R. hibernica, and R. involiita ; others to countries, as the R. majalis 

 of Sweden and Denmark, and the R. glutinosa of the Levant. Some few 

 are only confined by the extreme limits of the genus : thus R. spinosissima 

 is alike common to the dreary wilds of Iceland, and to the sultry shores 

 of the Mediterranean ; and R. canina grows from the confines of Anger- 

 mania in Sweden, to the most southern regions of Europe, thence extending 

 into Egypt. 



" In the north of Africa are 2 species peculiar to that country ; and 2 

 others common to it and Europe. 14 species have been found in North 

 America; none of which, except R. Montezumtf? and R. stricta, have much 

 general resemblance to European roses. It is not unworthy of notice, that 

 the R. laevigata of the woods of Georgia is so similar to the R. sinica of 

 China, as not to be immediately distinguishable from it." (LindL Monog., 

 introd. p. 30.) 



The rose, in a wild state, is more frequently found on soils that are dry and 

 free, than on such as are moist and tenacious ; and, with the exception of the 

 climbing kinds, it is more common among bushes of its own height, than in 

 woods ; thus indicating to the cultivator that it ought neither to be altogether 

 exposed to the sun, nor entirely excluded from its rays. In the north of 

 Europe, wild roses have always single flowers ; but in the south of Europe, 

 particularly in the warmest parts of Italy, Greece, and Spain, it is not uncom- 

 mon to find roses with double flowers growing spontaneously in the fields, 

 woods, and meadows. 



History. The rose is mentioned by the earliest writers of antiquity as an 

 object of culture. Herodotus speaks of the double rose, and Solomon of the 

 rose of Sharon, and of the plantations of roses at Jericho. Theophrastus 

 tells us that the hundred-leaved rose grew, in his time, on Mount Pangseus ; 

 and it appears that the Isle of Rhodes (Isle of Roses) received its name from 

 the culture of roses carried on there. Pliny mentions several sorts of roses 

 which were cultivated by the Romans; and that those of Praeneste, Campania, 

 Miletus, and Cyrene were the most celebrated. 



The Praeneste roses are thought by Thory, De Leuze, and other French 

 authors, to belong to the species .Kosa damascena, No. 35. fig. 490. p. 759. ; 

 those of Campania to Rossi centifolia, No. 36. fig. 491. p. 760.; and 

 those of Miletus to Rosa gallica, No. 37. fig. 493. p. 760. Pliny says 

 nothing in the way of description of the roses of Praeneste ; but they are, no 

 doubt, those referred to by Virgil, as " biferique rosaria Paesti," the twice- 

 bearing roses of Pa?stum, a village of Latium, about twenty miles from Rome. 

 Of the roses of Campania, Pliny says that they have a hundred leaves, and 

 that they are found in Campania in Italy, and about Philippi in Greece. 

 They do not grow naturally, he adds, in the neighbourhood of Philippi, 

 but they were brought there from Mount Pangaeus, which is not far thence, 



