j]r 16, 1904. 
fHE Gardening World 
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IEZLII. 
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1 559. 
Views and Reviews. 
Roses Then and Now. 
From a very remote period the Rose in, its 
various forms has held a very high position 
in the esteem of lovers of plants. In all 
probability they were amongst the first 
plants cultivated in gardens solely for their 
beauty and apart from their use in medicine, 
though it is certain they were used to some 
considerable extent even for that purpose. 
John Gerard is mostly quoted for the 
first definite record of garden plants 
introduced to this country. His book 
from which these records were taken is 
dated 1597, but from the evidence he sup¬ 
plies us it is certain that a large number of 
Roses were grown prior to that date, for 
many of them had already long been grown 
in London gardens, and their origin or source 
lost in obscurity. Gerard was constantly 
being, told stories about plants:, some of 
which he recorded in all good faith and 
others he disbelieved. Parkinson, on the 
other hand, was more discreet when writing 
his ‘‘ Paradisus Terrestris ” in 1629, for he 
seldom repeats anything which he has been 
told, or of hearsay, but confines himself more 
particularly to those things which he has 
grown or seen. The high opinion which 
Gerard entertained of Roses generally may 
be gleaned from his introduction to thei 
chapter on, Roses as follows: — 
“ The plant of Roses, though it be a shrub 
full of prickles, yet it bad been most fit and 
convenient to have placed it with the most, 
glorious floures of the world, than to insert 
the same here among base and thomie 
shrubs: for the Rose doth deserve the 
jliiefest and most principall place among all 
floures whatsoever, beeing not onely 
esteemed for his beauty, vertues, and his fra¬ 
grant and odoriferous smell ; but also tie- 
cause it is the honour and ornament of cur 
English scepter, as by the conjunction 
appeareth in the uniting of those two most 
royall houses of Lancaster and York. Which 
pleasant floures: deserve the chiefest place in 
erownes and garlands', as Anacreon Thius, a 
most ancient Greeke poet (whom Henricus 
Steph anus hath translated in a gallant Latine 
verse), affirms in those verses of a Rose, etc. ’ 
It is: interesting to note what he says about 
the White Rose, which he names' Rosa alba., 
and which seems to be the same plant still 
grown under that appellation. He figures 
the double form of it, and says that it grows 
wild in great abundance in many hedges of 
Lancashire, and particularly at a part of the 
country called Leyland, as Briers do in the 
south. The information that follows would 
seem to indicate that he was indebted to that 
" curious gentleman " living in those parts, 
and with whom he was in communication, for 
the story of the White Roses growing in the 
hedges. Parkinson is more explicit in his 
opinion as to the nativity of the White Rose, 
for he names, it Rosa anglica. alba, and says it 
was thought that this and the Carnation Rose 
originated in England. The modern version 
is that it is a supposed hybrid, the parentage 
suggested being canina x gallica. 
The English Red Rose is Latinised by Par¬ 
kinson a,s Rosa anglica rubra, of which lie 
says that it was amongst, the most ancient 
and known Rose in this count ry. The White 
and the Red Roses were assumed to be “ cog¬ 
nisances of their dignity” by the kings of 
those days. The discussion has sometimes 
run high recently as to what was the White 
Rose of England, but when. Parkinson writes 
of it so convincingly in his day, surely it 
could not have been forgotten by his time, 
seeing that they were of such importance in 
the eyes of the kings. The Red Rose in¬ 
cluded several differing in the colour of their 
flowers. The scent was better than that of 
the white one, and the petals' were larger 
than t'hooe of the Damask Rose, though the 
scent was not so good. This and other 
evidence would seem to point to Rosa, gallica 
as the English Red Rose of those days. Many 
other Rosies mentioned by the above authors 
are still in cultivation and generally 
reckoned amongst our garden or summer- 
flowering Roses. The above view was also 
taken, by J. C. Loudon in 1844. 
The York and Lancaster Rose is very 
closely described by Parkinson, whose 
botanical name for it was Rosia versicolor, on 
account of the liability of the flowers' to great 
variation in colour. He correctly describes 
it. as; coining nearest to the Damask Rose, and 
the variety is still in cultivation. More re¬ 
cently the name York and Lancaster has been 
given, though erroneously, to Rosa Mundi, a 
striped variety of R. gallica. The mention of 
R. damascena brings us more closely in con¬ 
tact with the improved garden Roses of the 
present day, especially the Hybrid Per- 
petuals, which had their origin in the Per¬ 
petual Damask in conjunction, with several 
others as parents. Both Gerard and Parkin¬ 
son figure a very large double Rose, a variety 
of the Damask, which wao known as the 
