The Brookhaven leader., 1883-07-05
ROSES.


ROSES.
The rose is the type of large family
of plants known as RosaceP. To this
family belong our finest flower and
pear, plum, cherry, almond, ounce,
peach, blackberry, raspberry and straw
berry all belong to this family, with
many varieties of desirable flowers, be-
sides the queen of the garden. OF the
rose itself there are many species, be-
ginning with the common dog or wild
rose of the fields and woods up to the
delicate china rose, the odorous damask
rose of Provence, which yields the fra
grant and costly altar, and the delicious
roses of our gardens, the hybrid or re-
montant, with their gorgeous color,
and the moss rose with its beautiful
buds. The dog rose, with its single
flower, consisting of five petals, is the
type of the whole family, including even
the cultivated kinds, which have great
number of so-called petals, but which
are really changed stamens and piStils
that go to make up the double blossoms.
The rose is extremely long-lived, and
trees and bushes still exist in vigor
which are considerably more than one
hundred years old. 1t is propagated
by seed and by all the arts known to
the gardener, as by layering, by cut
tings of the stem or roots, by grating
and by budding. 1t has been the theme
of the most ancient poets and has been
used to adorn the gardens of civil
lied man from the most remote
periods. All the ancient writers
upon husbandry have treated of
the culture of roses. The Greek
Theophrastus,, and the Latns Varro,
Columella, Virgil and Pliny have all
written more or less fully upon this
subject. The twentieth book of Pliny's
Natural History" is devoted to roses,
and they are referred to in other pOr-
tions of the work. The cultivation of
the flower must have been quite extern
sive in those days, for roses were used
in profusion in the ancient religious
ceremonies, but, while the flowers wer>
extensively cultivated, the art of propa-
eating them, producing new varieties,
was almost unknown. Still, while
modern roSe-eultivators have greatly
increased the varieties and have i'm
proved the form and color of the flow
ers, yet all our present profusion in
quantity is far less than that which the
Romans produced in their gardens from
the few kinds which they cultivated.
So enormous was the quantity of flow
ers grown and used that the stories of
the voluptuousness of the Sybarites,
who were not satisfied with less lux
uriOus bed than one of rose-leaves, and
used these flowers abundantly for this
purpose, are not at all incredible. 1t is
certain, however, that the Roman gar
deners possessed some varieties now
lost and unknown excepting in history,
and which have been sought for by en-
terprising florists without success
throughout all Italy. A kind which is
said by Pliny and Virgil to have
bloomed semi-annually, for instance,
has not been discovered, although it
has been closely searched for.
The Roman gardeners possessed the
secret of forcing and retarding the
blooming of their roses, and in this way
continued the blooming season during
r,early the whole year. Florists did not
want for patronage in those days. al
though the same complaints which we
now hear of were made then about the
Ors and mobiles of Rome. Nero spent
$4,000 of our money for roses alone
for one fete, while tenth part of the
SIM spent by our modern Cresus very
recently was considered most extrav-
agant outlay, even for an extraordi-
nary occasion, for all the floral decora-
tions. All the rose-houses in the world
at this day could not supply the de-
mand of ancient Rome alone.
The Greeks were the first to extract
perfumes from roses, and this art was
acquired by the Romans and has con-
tinued in the East to the present day,
where large plantations are cultivated
expressly for the production of the
costly altar. The island of Rhodes was
chiefly occupied by rose gardens, and
its name signifies the isle of roses,
Rhodon being the Greek word for rose;
while medals are still in existence in
cabinets of collections which were struck
in Rhodes having a rose on one side
and sunt1ower on the other. The
Moors in Spain followed the Romans in
this special culture, and, if we may be-
lieye history, possessed variety which
exists new only in the imagination of
the swindling flower peddlers, who offer
for sale blue roses and tree, strawber-
ries, The Moorish historians mentioned
irose-culture as prominent pursuit,
and said: There are roses of many
colors-carnation, white, yellow and
sky blue; some of the last being blue
outside and yellow within" This sto-
~ Is, however. most likely o fiction of
q reporter of those days who desired to
create a sensation: for another writer