178 SYLVA FLORIFERA. 



rosa provincialise and which has been claimed 

 by the inhabitants of the south of France as a 

 native of Provence, whilst the Dutch, says 

 Gerard, consider themselves entitled to this 

 flower, and say, as it first came out of Hol- 

 land it ought to have been named the Holland 

 rose, and not Provence rose ; but it appears 

 very evidently from Pliny, that neither of 

 these countries can justly hold it as a native 

 plant. He calls it a Greek rose, and thus 

 describes it in the fourth chapter of his twenty- 

 first book, " The rose named Grcecula has its 

 petals or flower leaves folded or lapped over 

 each other so closely, that they will not open 

 of themselves, unless they be forced with the 

 fingers, and therefore always look as if they 

 were in the bud, but when they are expanded 

 they are the largest of all the roses." This 

 account correctly corresponds with the nature 

 of the Provence rose, which is often called 

 the Cabbage rose, from the manner in which 

 the petals cabbage or fold over each other. 

 As this rose is so nearly allied to the damask 

 rose, it is probable that the Greeks first ob- 

 tained it from the vicinity of Damascus, and 

 that the trivial change is owing to soil and 

 cultivation. At what period this beautiful 

 flower first found its way into English gar- 

 dens is uncertain. Gerard speaks of it as no 



