HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION 
So many authors and artists have contributed to our knowledge of the 
Roses that to name them all would be to enumerate nearly every 
botanical book that has been written. Here we can only refer to 
some of the most important. 
THE BIBLE AND CLASSICAL WRITERS 
In the Authorized Version of the Bible, the Rose is mentioned 
in the Song of Solomon, 1 and Isaiah, 2 but in both these passages it is 
certain that the plant named was a bulbous plant, and not a Rose. 
But the true Rose is mentioned in Ecclesiasticus, 3 the Wisdom of 
Solomon, 4 and Esdras, 5 where the Greek word poSov is used, which 
always means Rose. There are several wild Roses in Palestine, the 
commonest and most striking of which is Rosa phoenicea. According 
to the Synopsis Plantarum Florae Classicae of Dr. Fraas (1845), 
the Roses known to the Greeks and Romans were Rosa gallica, Rosa 
canina , Rosa sempervirens, Rosa moschata , and Rosa myriacantha . 1 1 
is probable that what he has taken for Rosa myriacantha is Rosa 
ghitinosa, which grows on Parnassus and other Eastern mountains. 
The authors whom he cites are Hippocrates (460-361 b.c.), Aristotle 
(3 85—3 2 2 b.c. ), Theophrastus (born 370 b.c.), Dioscorides, the Greek 
physician, who was contemporary with the Emperor Nero, and Pliny 
(a.d. 23-79). Pliny mentions ten different varieties as cultivated in 
Italy, but no doubt they are all forms of Rosa gallica, Rosa provincialis , 
and Rosa centifolia. Rosa canina he does not admit to be a Rose but 
1 ii. 1 : “ I am the rose of Sharon.” 
2 xxxv. 1 : “ The desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose.” 
3 xxiv. 14 : “I was exalted like a palm tree in Engaddi, and as a rose plant in Jericho ” ; xxxix. 13 : 
“ Bud forth as a rose growing by the brook of the field.” 
4 ii. 8 : “ Let us crown ourselves with rose buds.” 
5 2 Esdras ii. 19: “Seven mighty mountains, whereupon there grow roses and lilies.” 
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