Nat. Okd. Rosacea. 
Rosa Blanda. 
“Nor did I wonder at the lilies white, 
Nor praise the deep Vermillion of the rose.” 
Shakespeare. 
“ The rose looks fair, but fairer we it deem, 
For that sweet odour which in it doth live.” 
Shakespeare. 
UR Artist has given ns in the present plate a charm¬ 
ing specimen of one of our native roses. The early 
flowering Rose (Rosa blanda) is hardly so deeply tinted 
as our dwarf wild rose, rosa lucida , but both possess 
attractions of colour and fragrance ; qualities that have made the rose 
to be the theme of many a poet’s song. In the flowery language 
of the East, beauty and the rose seem almost to be synonymous. 
The Italian poets are full of allusions to the rose, especially to the red 
damask rose, which they call “ purpurea rosa.” 
A popular song in the days of Charles the 1st was that beginning 
with the lines— 
“ Gather your roses while you may, 
For time is still a flying, 
And that same flower that blooms to-day, 
To-morrow may be dying.” 
