^ The Scented garden $£ 



bushy. The foliage of this rose is scented and although 

 not so powerful as that of some of the Sweet Briars, yet 

 it may certainly be regarded as nearly related to, if not 

 one of the Eglantine family.' 



Sweetest of all our wild roses, sweeter even than sweet- 

 briar is R. spinosissima. We have the cultivated varieties 

 of this rose, but why do we not grow the wild variety in 

 the garden, where it deserves a place, not only for its 

 beauty but for its fragrance ? True, this dwarf rose 

 never looks lovelier than when it is seen growing wild 

 with its blush-white flowers and red tipped buds in close 

 proximity to a tangle of undergrowth and wild flowers. 

 It still grows wild in parts of England, it loves sandy, 

 waste ground and chalk, and is the only British rose which 

 may be found growing naturally near the sea-shore. By 

 the sea, it is even more dwarf than inland, for inland it 

 grows to a height of between two and four feet. It is the 

 rose which grows farthest north, it being the only rose 

 growing wild in Iceland. It is very widely spread, North 

 and Central Europe, Italy, Spain, Northern China and 

 Japan, but not the Himalayas. It has been known to 

 botanists for quite four centuries. Gerard, in his cata- 

 logue of 1596, calls it the Pimpernel Rose. Linnaeus 

 adopted the name ' spinosissima ' from Bauhin. Were 

 some skilful catalogue-writer to set forth the virtues of 

 this rose, its delicious fragrance, its floriferousness, its 

 suitability for a dwarf hedge, etc., it would be grown in 

 every garden. As it is, it remains one of our scarcer wild 

 roses, and the places where it grows wild are, fortunately, 

 not too well known. 



The Scotch roses originated with hybrids raised by 

 Robert Brown of Perth, from the native Burnet rose 

 98 



