10 



PARSONS ON THE KOSE. 



twenty-one pages are given to the culture of tulips, and 

 fifty to pinks. Though he describes two hundred and 

 twenty-five varieties of pinks, and four hundred and thir- 

 teen tulips, he mentions only fourteen species and varieties 

 of roses. For a century subsequent to the publication of 

 La Quintyne's work, the Rose is very little mentioned, 

 either in English or French works, and there is nothing 

 to indicate the existence at that time of many species, 

 two or thre^ only being required for medicine and per- 

 fumery. Some of the English collections, however, num- 

 bered during that century some twenty-two distinct spe- 

 cies, and a number of varieties. In 1762, Linnaeus was 

 acquainted with only fourteen species. In 1799, Wilde- 

 now, in his Species Plantar'um^ mentioned thirty-nine ; 

 and Persoon, a little later, reached forty-five species; De 

 Candolle, in his Prodromiis^ published in 1825, in- 

 creased the number to one hundred and forty-six ; and 

 Don, in 1832, makes t*wo hundred and five species. If to 

 these are added those which have been within fifteen years 

 discovered in the Himalaya Mountains, and in other parts 

 of the globe, the number will be greatly increased. 



Many of those enumerated by Don should not, in truth, 

 be considered distinct species, and quite a number are 

 nothing more than varieties. In fact, roses are so liable 

 to pass into each other, that botanists are now of the 

 opinion that limits between many of those called species 

 do not exist ; a fact which was strongly suspected by 

 Linnaeus, when he said, " Species limitibus difficillime cir- 

 cumscribuntur, et forte natura non eos posuit.'' 



There is much confusion in the genus Rosa, and in the 

 best arrangement there may be many, which, on close 

 examination, would scarcely deserve the name of species. 

 The best scientific work on the Rose is the " Monographia 

 Rosarum," by Dr. Lindley. This author, and Loudon, we 

 shall follow entirely in our botanical classification. The 



