^ The Old 'looses & 



variety of Damask rose grown in the Balkans for attar of 

 roses is R. trigenta petala. This is very pink, double and 

 very sweetly scented. They grow them in hedges, allowing 

 six feet between each, wide enough for a team of oxen to 

 plough. Miss Jekyll mentions as rare a very dark damask 

 rose called the Velvet rose. I have never seen this rose, 

 but my mother has often told me that when she was a 

 child this rose was grown, and that she well remembers its 

 deep velvet petals and wonderful fragrance. The favour- 

 ite old variety, Hebe's Lip, fortunately still survives. 

 Miss Willmott gives the characteristics which principally 

 distinguish R. damascena from R. gallica and R. centi folia, 

 as the long deciduous sepals, reflexing during flowering 

 time, the tall arching stems, which are nearly always 

 green in colour, the larger hooked prickles, thinner leaflets, 

 softly pubescent beneath, flowers many in a corymb and 

 elongated fruit, which turns bright red and pulpy in 

 September. 



R. gallica was one of the roses Gerard grew in his 

 Holborn garden. It is listed in his catalogue (1596) as 

 R. rubra. R. gallica and its numerous hybrids (in its wild 

 state it hybridizes with R. canina, etc.) is a native of 

 central and southern Europe, and eastward as far as the 

 Caucasus. ' Its dominant characters are transmitted in 

 a greater or lesser degree to all the hybrids. The rather 

 thick wrinkled leaflets, generally five in number, are 

 hoary below and smooth, rather pale green above, and 

 the running roots throw up numerous stiff stems which 

 rarely exceed three feet in height. The flowers are large 

 in proportion, generally solitary, rarely exceeding three 

 and very fragrant.' 1 There are a large number of garden 



1 Ellen Willmott. The Genus Rosa. 



"7 



