The Brookhaven leader., 1883-07-05

OF rOseS-Whlte, yellow, purple and
flesh color. The Moors practiced some
curious arts, such as filling hollow pipes
like stems of trees with earth, and plant
ing roses at the top, so as to form a
blooming head, which, by pruning,
they loaded with flowers. They may
serve as a hint to modern grow
ers, who might thus produce va
riOus ornamental and picturesque
devices for the adornment of gar
dens and lawns. As regards the
blue rose of this period it may after all
be no myth, for the yellow rose then
written of was not known or believed in
until quite recently. So that ardent
and hopeful rose-growers may still con-
tinue to grow seedlings in the expecta-
tion of gaining fortune by means of a
sky-blue rose. But though we have not
blue rose we have green one, which
is more than the Moors had, and SO
modern times may justly claim to be
ahead of the ancients. Everywhere in
the East is the land of roses. Damascus
gives us the exquisite damask rose.
Cashmere, Barbary and Egypt all con-
tribute the rose oil or essence, and in
India at the present day the rose is
grown in fields of hundreds of acres for
the extraction of the altar. The rose
fields of Bengal are described occasion
ally by modern writer's in terms as glow
ing as the cOlors exhibited on the broad
fields. Here the rose bushes are grown
as trees full fourteen feet high, laden
with thousands of flowers in all states
of expansion and filling the air with ex-
quisite perfume" In the noted Valley
of Cashmere the people hold feast of
roses at the most abundant season OF
the flowers, when they dance upon the
ground, strewn with roses, amid great
mounds of them, upon which they re-
cline when weary.
AT the present day roses are cult
waited all over the world, but the gardens
of Italy, Spain and France excel in their
culture. The moist, cool climate of En-
gland favors their growth, and standard
roses are grown there to perfection in
many cottager's humble garden as
well as in the broad grounds of the
wealthy people. In America, the rose
has been too much neglected, but it is
becoming more popular, partly through
the enterprise of the florists and partly
through the liberality of the wealthy
citizens, who spend thousands of dollars
for the flowers. To complain of this
expenditure as wicked waste and
reckless extravaganza is foolish and
mistaken. If any complaint is due it is
because of the possession rather than the
spending of the money, for it is then
scattered usefully among the laborers
who have planted and tended the
roses and the workmen who
have built the rose-houses. Money
SO spent is like "the gentle rain from
heaven; it blesses him who gives and
him who takes" In this way a man of
wealth is a mere agent for the circula-
ton of money, for he can not enjoy a
dollar of his wealth without sharing its
enjoyment with some fellow-creature.
This constantly increasing demand for
flowers encourages their production, and
thus cheapens them, and enables the
florists to offer a whole dozen of rooted
plants, packed ready to 90 safely by
mail, for Il single dollar to every person
who can find the dollar, and what
industrious person can not? And this
business has of late years increased so
enormously that there are several rose
growers who have dozens, and some
more than a hundred, propagating
houses, which they fill with the newest
varieties from the growers who make a
specially of producing seedlings and
new kinds, and so spread them broad
cast in the mail-bags from Oregon to
Florida and from Maine to California.
There are now in cultivation hundreds
of named varieties from the purest white
to deep dark crimson almost black in its
vclvety shading. We have even striped
rose and pure green one, and others
with shaded colors and mixed tints and
pure yellows and reds, with every inter-
vening shade and mixture of colors, as
saffron, dreamy yellows and whites,
pinks, blush and flesh-color. A selec-
ton of hundred varieties costing but
eight dollars offers one of the most ex-
quisite delights of the garden for a mere
trifle; while in a few years, by little
pains in propagating by layers or by
cuttings, a large stock may be accum-
ulated sufficient to plant large beds and
fill the whole space around the home
stead with hardy roses, which are grown
as easily as currant bush or a raspber-
ry or grapevine. And, considering the
beauty and delightful fragrance of the
rose and its easy culture, who would not
wish to have his premises overhowing
with them?-N. Y. Times.
A Pathetic Scene.