26 HORTICULTURE. 



devotion to the rose, of her being the queen of flowers by accla- 

 mation always and for ever, is that the rose is a type of infinity. 



In the first place, then, the rose is a type of infinity, because 

 there is no limit to the variety and beauty of the forms and colors 

 which it assumes. From the wild rose, whose sweet, faint odor is 

 wasted in the depths of the silent wood, or the eglantine, whose 

 wreaths o: fresh sweet blossoms embroider even the dusty road 

 sides, 



" Starring each bush in lanes and glades," 



to that most perfect, full, rounded, and odorous flower, that swells 

 the heart of the florist as he beholds its richness and symmetry, 

 what an innumerable range of shades, and forms, and colors ! And, 

 indeed, with the hundreds and thousands of roses of modern times, 

 we still know little of all the varied shapes which the plant has taken 

 in by-gone days, and which have perished with the thousand other 

 refinements and luxuries of the nations who cultivated and enjoyed 

 them.* 



All this variety of form, so far from destroying the admiration 

 of mankind for the rose, actually increases it. This very character 

 of infinity, in its beauty, makes it the symbol and interpreter of the 



* Many of our readers may not be aware to what perfection the culture 

 of flowers was once carried in Rome. During Caesar's reign, so abundant 

 had forced flowers become in that city, that when the Egyptians, intending to 

 compliment him on his birthday, sent him roses in midwinter, they found 

 their present almost valueless from the profusion of roses in Rome. The 

 following translation of Martial's Latin Ode to Caesar upon this present^ 

 will give some idea of the state of floriculture then. There can scarcely be 

 a doubt that there were hundreds of sorts of roses known to, and cultivated 

 by the Romans, now entirely lost. 



" The ambitious inhabitants of the land, watered by the Nile, have sent 

 thee, Caesar, the roses of winter, as a present, valuable for its novelty. 

 But the boatman of Memphis will laugh at the gardens of Pharaoh as soon 

 as he has taken one step in thy capital city ; for the spring in all its charms, 

 and the flowers in their fragrance and beauty, equal the glory of the fields 

 o5 Pagstum. "Wherever he wanders, or casts his eyes, every street is brilliant 

 with garlands of roses. And thou, O Nile ! must yield to the fogs of Rome. 

 Send us thy harvests, and we will send thee roses." 



