384- Ancient History of the Bose. 



The most celebrated of these rose plantations were at Paestum. 

 It may here be mentioned, that the custom of rearing large 

 plantations of rose trees still exists in the East, and in Russia, 

 as appears from the following extract from Van Halen's account 

 of his journey in that country. " On the following morning, 

 we left our place of bivouack, in the vicinity of Kuba, with the 

 rising sun, and proceeded through picturesque Jields covered with 

 rose trees. The exquisite fragrance emitted by them, and which 

 the morning dew rendered more fresh and grateful ; the varied 

 warbling of a multitude of birds, who had their nests in these 

 delightful bowers ; and the sight of several cascades, whose 

 playful waters leaped from their steep summits, produced on 

 every sense an indescribable feeling of delight. One of the 

 nobles belonging to the suite of Ashan Khan made me a present 

 of a small flagon of oil extracted from these roses; and which, 

 when some months after I compared with the best otto of roses 

 of Turkey, surpassed it in fragrance and delicacy. Beyond these 

 woods of roses spreads an extensive forest." 



Roses, according to Theophrastus and Pliny, were raised, in 

 some cases, from seeds ; but they say that the growth of the 

 plant when so propagated was slow, owing to the seed being 

 situated within the bark under the flower, and having a woolly 

 covering. Shoots or cuttings were also planted, and this mode of 

 propagating the plant was preferred to the above, because their 

 growth was more rapid. 



The cuttings, according to Pliny, were four fingers or more 

 in length, and were planted soon after the setting of the pleiades, 

 perhaps, about April, and were afterwards transplanted during 

 the following spring. The young plants were placed one foot 

 distant one from another, and were frequently dug round. They 

 required a light soil, not rich nor clayey, nor one in which there 

 were springs. Their favourite soil was ground covered with 

 the rubbish of old buildings. 



The following account of the cultivation of rose trees is given 

 by Didymus in the Geoponics. 



If you wish, says the above writer, to have a constant succes- 

 sion of roses, plant and manure them every month. But roses 

 are planted in various ways; some transplant them with the 

 root entire ; others take them up with the root, and cut them 

 down to the size of four fingers in length, and plant all that is 

 cut off the roots, and what grows from them, at the distance of 

 one foot and a half from each other. Some weave wreaths of 

 rose plants, and plant them for the sake of their fragrance. But 

 we ought to recollect that roses will have more fragrance when 

 they are grown in dry places, in the same manner as lilies have. 

 Roses come early both in baskets and in pots, and require the 

 same attention as gourds and cucumbers. If you wish those 



