CULTURE OF THE ROSE. 141 



Hindoos and the Moors of Spain, is this beautiful flower indebted 

 for the most careful and abundant cultivation, and for a due ap- 

 preciation of its merits. 



At the present time the Rose is cultivated throughout the civil- 

 ized world. Loudon speaks of hedges of mixed Provence Roses, 

 in the garden of Rosenstein, in German)^, and also of their pro- 

 fusion in the public garden of Frankfort. They are found in 

 the gardens of Valencia, in Spain, and Sir John Carr, speaking 

 of the seat of a Spanish gentleman near Tarragona, says, " the 

 doors of the dining room open into a small garden, the walls of 

 which are covered with myrtles, jasmines, and roses." In the 

 Botanic garden of Madrid, rose trees are used for dividing hedges, 

 and the flower is a favorite throughout Spain. 



Among the Spanish ladies, the Rose is highly valued, and with 

 the orange flower, is a favorite ornament for the hair. We have 

 frequently been struck, while traveling in the Spanish West 

 Indies, and in some parts of South America, with the careful 

 nurture and attention bestowed on a single rose bush, and the 

 delight evinced at its bloom, while all around in natural luxu- 

 riance were the most beautiful and gorgeous plants and flowers 

 which the tropics can produce. The brilliant cactus, the beautiful 

 oleander, the singular orchidaea, and the delicate and fragrant 

 flowers of the coffee and orange, seemed cast into the shade by 

 the ancient and well known Rose. 



I well recollect, that on returning one day from a ride into the 

 country, where I had been luxuriating in the gorgeous splendor 

 of a tropical forest, the fair daughter of my hostess wished to 

 introduce me to a flower, which, in her opinion, far surpassed all 

 that I had seen ; she accompanied me to the top of the flat-roofed 

 house, used at the South as a place of evening resort, and there, 

 in one corner, I found a thrifty plant of the Tea Rose, which to 

 her infinite delight, was just showing above its glossy and delicate 

 young leaves, a little ruby-tipped bud. This little plant had been 

 the object of long and careful nursing, and her attention was now 

 about to be rewarded by a fine and perfect bloom. 



In France, however, is the Rose a pre-eminent object of horti- 



