THE ROSE. 
93 
C£ As objects of cultivation, roses have always been 
eagerly sought after; and, for the purpose of increasing 
their beauty, every means have been adopted that are 
likely to make them double. Hence we account for 
the multitude of individuals with which every garden 
abounds, whose beauty is only equalled by the extreme 
difficulty of tracing them to their original stock. And 
we may go back to the days of Herodotus, Athenaeus, 
and Theophrastus, each of whom adverts particularly to 
double roses; while Pliny enumerates several sorts, 
amongst which is the It. centifolia. 
“ The species are all included between the 70th 
and 20th degrees of northern latitude, except the 
R. Montezumae of Mexico, found in 19° N., at an 
elevation of more than 9300 feet above the level of the 
sea. But Baron Humboldt has calculated that in tro¬ 
pical countries the decrement of caloric is one degree 
over 90 toises of vertical elevation ; therefore the heat 
at this height would be nearly the same as that of 
countries 29° farther from the equator; so that its 
situation is essentially the same as that of the European 
parallel, to the species of which it is more readily 
related than to those of its own continent. In Asia, 
which may indeed be called the ‘land of the rose,’ 
half the species have been found. Of the thirty-nine 
