Natural Hiftory of the Ancients. 195 



garlands of rofes. " Cato, in his ' Treatife of 

 Gardens/ ordained as a neceflary point that they 

 fhould be planted and enriched with fuch herbs as 

 might bring forth flowers for coronets and gar- 

 lands." 1 Pliny adds, however, that the Romans 

 were acquainted with very few garden flowers 

 for garlands fave violets and rofes. The rojeta^ or 

 rofe-beds, in which thefe rofes were grown, are 

 much celebrated in Latin poetry, particularly thofe 

 of Pasftum, which ftill delight the traveller, 2 and 

 were renowned for bloflbming twice in the year. 



Pliny is the chief authority for Roman rofes. 

 He mentions that twelve varieties of the flower, 

 all more or lefs efteemed, were known at Rome. 

 Thofe grown at Prasnefte and Capua were regarded 

 as the beft. A botanical characteriftic of the rofe 

 family is the poffeflion of five petals. Pliny had 

 noticed this : " The feweft leaves that a rofe hath 

 be five; and fo upward they grow ever ftill more 

 and more, untill they come to thofe that have an 

 hundred, namely about Campain in Italy, and 

 neere to Philippos, a city in Greece, whereupon 

 the rofe is called in Latine Centifolia." They 

 have been brought to this fize, and to the fragrance 

 which many of them, efpecially thofe of Cyrene, 

 poflefs, he adds, " by many devifes and fophiftica- 

 tions" of the gardeners. Yet how little he knew 

 practically about rofe-cultivation is apparent from 

 his words, " the rofe-bufh loveth not to be planted 



1 Pliny, "Nat. Hift." (Holland), xxi. I. 



2 "Biferi rofaria Paefti," Virg., "Georg.," iv. 119; Prop., 

 * v - 5> 59 y an< * "punicea rofeta," Virg., "Eel," v. 17. 



