132 CULTURE OF THE ROSE. 



ishing for many ages. Among the Moors of Spain, the culture 

 of the Rose was pursued with as much scientific and practical 

 method as at the present day, but with somewhat less happy 

 results. When in Paris, some two years since, we became ac- 

 quainted with M. Hardy, the chief director of the Luxembourg 

 gardens, and who is well known to rose growers, by the many 

 beautiful varieties which he has originated. His interest in this 

 subject was very great, and in 1828 he published, in the Journal 

 des Jardins^ some interesting observations which he had ex- 

 tracted from a manuscript of M. de la Neuville. The latter hav- 

 ing been employed as military superintendent in Spain, during 

 the war of 1823, translated from a Spanish version some parts 

 of an Arabian work upon culture in general, in which that of the 

 Rose was mentioned, with some important particulars. It stated 

 that the Moors, who formerly conquered Spain, attached the 

 highest value to this most beautiful of their flowers, and cultiva- 

 ted it with as much care as ourselves. " According to Abu-el- 

 Jair," says the translation, " there are roses of many colors — car- 

 nation white—fallow or yellow — lapis-lazuli, or sky-blue. Some 

 are of this last color on the outside, and yellow within. In the 

 East they are acquainted with roses which are variegated with 

 yellow and sky-blue, the inside of the corolla being of the one 

 color, and the outside the other. The yellow-heart is very com- 

 mon in Tripoli and Syria, and the blue-heart is found on the 

 coast of Alexandria." To us, at the present day, this rglation 

 may with reason seem incredible, since amid the numerous vari- 

 eties now existing, and the skill of their cultivators, we have in 

 no instance been able to obtain a blue Rose. Abu-el- Jair, may 

 have ventured to state it as a fact, without proper authority, for, 

 according to M. de la Neuville, Abu-Abdallah-ebu-el-Fazel, an- 

 other nearly contemporaneous author, enumerated a variety of 

 roses without mentioning the blue. " There are," says this last 

 author, " four varieties of roses : the first is named the Double 

 White ; it has an exquisite odor, and its cup unites more than 

 a hundred petals : the second is the Yellow, which is of a golden 

 color and bright as the jonquil ; then the Purple, and lastly the 



