The History of the Rose. 



In reference to the latter quotation, botanists who have visited Paestum have not 

 been able to meet with Roses flowering in autumn, and some people have pronounced 

 them creations of the poet's fancy. Be this as it may, it might be accounted for, I 

 think, by presuming the adoption of a particular mode of culture. The culture of 

 Roses was a trade at Paestum, a town of Lucania colonised by the Sybarites about 500 

 years before the Christian era, and which, in the time of the Roman emperors, was 

 principally famous for the beauty of its Roses. Now, it seems to me quite probable 

 that the growers might have forced the plants to induce them to flower early in the 

 spring. After this they might rest them for a period, and then by pruning and 

 watering, backed by the influences of their climate, induce a new growth, and 

 consequently a second development of flowers. I can readily conceive of the 

 practicability of this, although no one who cared for the ultimate welfare of his plants 

 might in these times tie disposed to practice it. Or again, is it not probable that 

 some of the Roses raised from seed were of this nature, though lost during the 

 barbarous ages which succeeded the downfall of Rome ? 



Tarquin the Proud had beds of Roses and Lilies in his garden within the walls 

 of the city. On the authority of Horace, also, it appears that Roses were grown 

 in beds, while Theocritus, Cicero, Ovid, and Juvenal speak of them. Columella 

 mentions a place being reserved expressly for the production of late Roses, and has also 

 a chapter "Of the Violet and the Rose." " It is proper that the Rose-bush be set at the 

 same time as the Violet (before the first of March), either in shrubs or suckers, or in 

 shoots or cuttings, all along furrows of one foot dimension, but it must be digged every 

 year before the first of March, and pruned here and there. When cultivated after this 

 manner it lasts for many years." Columella " The Book concerning Trees? cap. 30. 



Pliny, who wrote on gardening towards the close of the first century, devotes con- 

 siderable space to Roses. In his " Natural History," the Rose is made the subject of 

 a separate chapter " The employment of the Rose in chaplets is, so to say, the least 

 use that is made of it. The flower is steeped in oil, a practice that has prevailed 

 from the time of the Trojan War, as Homer bears witness." And again " For the 

 Rose the ground is generally dug to a greater depth than it is for corn ; " " it grows 

 but very slowly from the seed, hence it is that the method of grafting is usually the 

 one preferred ; " " all Roses are improved by being pruned and cauterised, &c." 

 (Book xxi., cap. 10). He speaks of twelve varieties; one kind, the " Grsecula," with 

 remarkably large petals, which always remained in the bud state, never expanding 

 unless pressed in the hand, of which we have numerous examples among modern 

 Roses. He tells us, further, that the genuine Rose is indebted for its qualities to the 

 nature of the soil, and that Roses without smell he does not consider genuine Roses. 

 Towards the close of the chapter he says the plant grows slowly from seed ; so that 

 the practice of raising seedlings was evidently resorted to in those early times. He 

 mentions those of Carthage, and others of Miletus (supposed to be R. GALLICA), and 



