en the Rose to point the moral
of the fleeting nature of all earthly things. Herrick in four lines
tells the whole--

"Gather ye Roses while ye may
Old time is still a-flying,
And the same flower that smiles to-day,
To-morrow will be dying."

But Shakespeare's notices of the Rose are not all emblematical and
allegorical. He mentions these distinct sorts of Roses--the Red Rose,
the White Rose, the Musk Rose, the Provencal Rose, the Damask Rose, the
Variegated Rose, the Canker Rose, and the Sweet Briar.

The Canker Rose is the wild Dog Rose, and the name is sometimes applied
to the common Red Poppy.

The Red Rose and the Provencal Rose (No. 13) are no doubt the same, and
are what we now call R. centifolia, or the Cabbage Rose; a Rose that has
been supposed to be a native of the South of Europe, but Dr. Lindley
preferred "to place its native country in Asia, because it has been
found wild by Bieberstein with double flowers, on the eastern side of
Mount Caucasus, whither it is not likely to have escaped from a
garden."[250:1] We do not know when it was introduced into England, but
it was familiar to Chaucer--

"The savour of the Roses swote
Me smote right to the herte rote,
As I hadde alle embawmed be.

* * * * *

Of Roses there were grete wone,
So faire were never in Rone."

_i.e._, in Provence, at the mouth of the Rhone. For beauty in shape and
exquisite fragrance, I consider this Rose to be still unrivalled; but it
is not a fashionable Rose, and is usually found in cottage gardens, or
perhaps in some neglected part of gardens of more pretensions. I believe
it is considered too loose in shape to satisfy the floral critics of
exhibition flowers, and it is only a summer Rose, and so contrasts
unfavourably with the Hybrid Perpetuals. Still, it is a delightful Rose,
delightful to the eye, delightful for its fragrance, and most delightful
from its associations.

The White Rose of York (No. 20) has never been satisfactorily
identified. It was clearly a cultivated Rose, and by some is supposed to
have been only the wild White Rose (_R. arvensis_) grown in a garden.
But it is very likely to have been the Rosa alba, which was a favourite
in English gardens in Shakespeare's time, and was very probably
introduced long before his time, for it is the double variety of the
wild White Rose, and Gerard says of it: "The double White