36 
SHAKESPEARE’S GARDEN 
rose ( R . damascena, L.), the musk rose ( R . mo solicit a } 
L.), as well as R. alba and R. gallica, L. 
But it is not alone the garden roses that Shake¬ 
speare mentions ; we must be prepared for the truth 
of the old proverb, “ There is no rose without a 
thorn and many of his quotations refer, obviously, 
to the wild and native species. Concerning these 
there is much difference of opinion among authors, 
some making the number of species small, some 
very large. The ninth edition of the “ London 
Catalogue” gives the following as genuinely native : 
R. pimpinellifolia, L. ; R. involuta , Sm. ; R. liibernica, 
Sm., very rare; R. mollis , Sm. ; R. tomentosa , Sm.; 
R. rubiginosa , L. ; R. micrantha , Sm. ; R. sepium, 
Thuill; R. obtusifolia , Desv.; R. canina , L. ; R t glauca , 
Vill. ; R. stylosa (sp. collect.); R. arvensis, Huds. ; 
and several naturalized, viz., rubella , Sm.; pomifera, 
Herm. ; gallica, L. ; lucida , Ehrh.; cinnamonea, L. ; 
Dicks oni, L., and semper-virens, L. Of all these, the 
poet probably is thinking chiefly of R. canina, the 
dog rose; R. arvensis, the snow-white com rose, 
bright with its yellow stamens; and the sweetbriar, 
R. rubiginosa. 
We can hardly say when roses were introduced, 
but they came into heraldic repute at an early date, 
when they were usually represented conventionally 
as a flower of five petals and six sepals with a golden 
centre, or, as heralds say, a rose gules, barbed vert 
and seeded or. It appears to have been used as a 
badge by Edward I., who may have inherited it from 
his mother, Eleanor, the Rose of Provence. In 1340, 
the Great Seal has small roses in lieu of stops 
between the words of the inscription, but it was 
not a prominent badge until the Civil War. Why 
roses were assumed is not at all clear: the red may 
have been for the Lancastrian Honour of Richmond, 
while the white rose was used by Richard, Earl of 
