THE BOTANICAL LOOKER-OUT. 
61 
eight hundred various kinds. More than that number are now cultivated in 
England in the various nurseries; and, according to M. Desportes, the French 
can boast no less than 2,533 named varieties. Loudon has, however, only 
particularly described seventy-seven kinds in his Hortus; but then many of 
these include multifarious varieties. The centifolia group, including the Damask, 
Province, and French Roses, has always been most esteemed : this comprises the 
favourite Moss Roses, dark, white, striped, and crested. The yellow Eglantine 
Rose ( Rosa luted) makes a conspicuous show in gardens, as well as its fiery 
variety subrubra , while the Sweet-briar is familiar to every one from the grateful 
scent of its leaves. The Chinese Roses (R. Indica et semperfiorens) have been 
extensively cultivated in the present day, from their hardiness and long con¬ 
tinuance in flower; and are now to be seen in almost every garden. The Rosa 
Banksice , or Lady-Banks’s Rose, smooth, and without prickles, is a beautiful 
shrub, and is remarkable for its pale yellow flowers, which are small, round, and 
very double, on long peduncles, resembling in form those of the double Cherry, 
or a small Ranunculus, more than those of the generality of Roses. The Rose, in 
some form or other, is generally diffused throughout the Northern hemisphere both 
in the old and new world: the species are, however, less plentiful in the latter; 
for while North-America produces only fourteen, Europe has twenty-five. Tem¬ 
perate climes are most suited to numerous kinds of Roses, for four species only 
are seen wild in the South of Europe and North of Africa, but then the individuals 
are more luxuriant; for while in the North wild Roses have always single flowers, 
in Italy and Greece it is not uncommon to find them with double flowers growing 
spontaneously in the woods and meadows. No Rose has ever been found in 
South-America or Australia. Sir W. J. Hooker describes nineteen Roses as 
natives of Britain, of which, perhaps, the most beautiful are R. spinosissima , 
R. villosa , R. ccesia , R. Sabini , and R. Doniana. Some of the latter, in their 
prime of perfection, streaked with white and red, might well inspire a poetical 
mind to utter the following beautiful sentiment, which coincides with the motto 
at the commencement of this paper; and thus, insensibly, we shall glide back into 
the same train of thought with which we set out. 
“ O gin my love were yon red Rose, 
That grows upon the castle wa’, 
And I myseT a drap o’ dew 
Into her bonnie breast to fa’! 
Oh, there, beyond expression blest, 
I’d feast on beauty a’ the night; 
Seal’d on her silk-saft faulds to rest, 
’Till fley’d awa’ by Phoebus light.” 
Withering has observed, that “not less emblematic of beauty and loveliness 
than the Myrtle itself, the Rose most aptly designates the tender passion, by its 
