THE LI1ERATURE OF THE ROSE. 



31 



concluding with cultural notes on the genus. The descriptions of the 

 Rosa Mundi, the York and Lancaster Rose, and the Double Yellow 

 Rose (R. sulphur ea or hemispherica) are especially accurate. Gilbert's 

 Florist's Vade Mecum and Gardener's Almanack (1683), quoted in 

 Weston's Tracts and elsewhere as containing good descriptions of the 

 Rose of his day, reproduces Rea's list and descriptions of varieties with 

 the cultural directions slightly varied and amplified. In the first half 

 of the eighteenth century Petiver figured Roses in his Gazophylacium, 

 as did also Furber in his Flower Garden Described, and the authors of 

 the Hortus Anglus, or Catalogue of Trees and Shrubs, which appeared in 

 1730. Dillenius, in his Hortus Elthamensis, describes and figures three 

 interesting kinds, and both Blackwell and Sheldrake figure in their 

 Herbals the kinds employed in medicine in their day. The first 

 edition of Miller's Gardeners' Dictionary (1731) contains an article 

 on the Rose describing forty-six species, which however are reduced in 

 the eighth edition (1768), which was the last published in the author's 

 lifetime, to twenty-two, the remainder being considered to be varieties 

 only. The sumptuous German works of Weinmann, Trew, and 

 Knorr (1737 and onwards) also include coloured illustrations of Roses 

 of interest, but it is to be regretted that the great flower painter of that 

 period, Ehret, did not devote more of his time and attention to the 

 Rose, as the few specimens of his Rose drawings which we have in 

 the Hortus nitidissimus and elsewhere are certainly striking ; some 

 two or three of his original drawings were exhibited at the Rose 

 Conference of this Society in 1889. 



SECOND PERIOD. 



With the appearance of Herrmann's treatise De Rosa, printed in 

 Strasburg in 1762, and D'Orbessan's essay, printed in Paris in 1768, 

 we arrive at the second period or epoch of our subject, and I think 

 this will be found of extreme interest, as having produced works that 

 are still in some instances unrivalled, and in many more have laid the 

 foundation of the Rose literature of the present day. Whilst the 

 medical and economic uses of the plant and flower began to lose some 

 of their importance, the number and beauty of the wild forms of the 

 Rose and their wide distribution over the Northern Hemisphere were 

 rendering it of increasing interest to the botanist, and the grace and 

 elegance of the ever-increasing number of garden forms brought it 

 into greater prominence as an object of ornamental culture. A large 

 number of botanical works and treatises appeared classifying and 

 describing the various wild Roses and their different forms ; France 

 and Germany vied with this country in the production of splendid 

 iconographies portraying both wild and garden Roses ; many 

 cultural works were issued for the guidance of those desirous of having 

 beautiful Roses in their gardens, and towards its close a periodical 

 literature began to spring up in the botanical and horticultural journals 

 of the day. 



