212 BOTANICAL CLASSIFICATION. 



or oviform, having but one cell, and containing numerous small 

 seeds which are oval or globular, and surrounded with a soft 

 down. The wood is very hard and compact, and of fine grain ; 

 and if it could be procured of sufficient size, would serve as a 

 substitute for box in many kinds of manufacture. Its longevity 

 is, perhaps, greater than that of any other shrub. We recol- 

 lect seeing a rose-tree near an old castle in Stoke Newington, 

 England, the stem of which was of immense size, and indicated 

 great age. " There is a rose-bush flourishing at the residence of 

 A. Murray Mcllvaine, near Bristol (Penn.), known to be more 

 than a hundred years old. In the year 1742, there was a kitchen 

 built, which encroached on the corner of the garden, and the 

 masons laid the corner-stone with great care, saying " it was a 

 pity to destroy so pretty a bush." Since then it has never failed 

 to produce a profusion of roses, shedding around the most deli- 

 cious of all perfumes. Sometimas it has climbed for years over 

 the second-story windows, and then declined by degrees to the 

 ordinary height. The fifth generation is now regaled with its 

 sweets." 



The number of species known to the ancients, was small, com- 

 pared with the number now recognized by botanists. Pliny, with 

 whom we find the most detail on this point, says, that the most 

 esteemed were those of Prseneste and Peestum, which were perhaps 

 identical ; those of Campania and Malta, of a briglit red color, 

 and having but twelve petals ; the white roses of Heraclea, in 

 Greece, and those of Alabande, which seem to be identical with 

 R. centifolia. According to the Roman naturalist and to Theo- 

 phrastus, they grew naturally on Mount Panga, and produced 

 there very small flowers; yet the inhabitants of Philippi went 

 there to obtain them, and the bushes on being transplanted, pro- 

 duced much improved and beautiful roses. Pliny speaks also of 

 some other species, one whose flowers were single, another which 

 he terms spinola, and also that of Carthage, which bloomed in 

 winter. Unfortunately, all that we find in his works on this 

 subject IS, generally, very obscure, and it is difficult to compare 

 many he has described with those known at the present day. 



