22 THE HISTORY AND CULTIVATION OF THE ROSE. 



cultivation of the Rose ; and conclude by offering a list 

 of a select few varieties which experience gives me 

 confidence in recommending for particular purposes or 

 localities.* 



The History of the Rose then will first engage our 

 attention. The Rose is indisputably a flower of antiquity, 

 and it has been admired and cultivated by almost every 

 civilised people. As if too beautiful to be excluded from 

 the natural Flora of any country, we find it very 

 generally diffused over the earth's surface, gracing alike 

 the temperate regions of Asia, Africa, and America, and 

 the whole of Europe, where, blooming in its native 

 wildness and simplicity, it is almost universally prized 

 and admired. But while Roses are to be found in almost 

 every country, the different species are by no means 

 equally distributed. While some are confined to 

 particular localities, others as the R. canina, the species 

 commonly' seen in our hedge-rows luxuriate not only 

 in one country, but throughout Europe generally ; and 

 R. canina is found even in Africa and America. Who 

 were the first people to bring this flower from its natural 

 habitats to be a dweller in cultivated grounds must ever 

 be a matter of conjecture. It probably attracted the 

 notice of the virtuoso in plants at a very early period ; 

 perhaps when they were valued only for their medicinal 

 properties, or as objects of pleasant associations. We 

 may follow in imagination the busy doings of the plant- 

 collector in the earliest times, and fancy him gathering 

 and fixing in one spot the beautiful productions scattered 

 around him. We may further suppose that the most 

 beautiful and the most useful would be the first collected, 

 and this would give to the flower under consideration a 

 very early period of recognition by the human race. The 

 famous gardens of Babylon, which existed 2000 years 



* It is thought unnecessary to bring again under notice the varieties of this 

 distant period. 



