t were not
here before, as the Damaske Rose by Doctour Linaker, King Henry the
Seventh and King Henrie the Eight's Physician."--_Voiages_, vol.
ii.[252:1]

As an ornamental Rose the Damask Rose is still a favourite, though
probably the real typical Rosa Damascena is very seldom seen--but it has
been the parent of a large number of hybrid Roses, which the most
critical Rosarian does not reject. The whole family are very
sweet-scented, so that "sweet as Damask Roses" was a proverb, and Gerard
describes the common Damaske as "in other respects like the White Rose;
the especiale difference consisteth in the colour and smell of the
floures, for these are of a pale red colour and of a more pleasant
smell, and fitter for meate or medicine."

The Musk Roses (No. 1) were great favourites with our forefathers. This
Rose (_R. moschata_) is a native of the North of Africa and of Spain,
and has been also found in Nepaul. Hakluyt gives the exact date of its
introduction. "The turkey cockes and hennes," he says, "were brought
about fifty yeres past, the Artichowe in time of King Henry the Eight,
and of later times was procured out of Italy the Muske Rose plant, the
Plumme called the Perdigwena, and two kindes more by the Lord Cromwell
after his travel."--_Voiages_, vol. ii. It is a long straggling Rose,
bearing bunches of single flowers, and is very seldom seen except
against the walls of some old houses. "You remember the great bush at
the corner of the south wall just by the blue drawing-room windows; that
is the old Musk Rose, Shakespeare's Musk Rose, which is dying out
through the kingdom now."--_My Lady Ludlow_, by Mrs. Gaskell. But
wherever it is grown it is highly prized, not so much for the beauty as
for the delicate scent of its flowers. The scent is unlike the scent of
any other Rose, or of any other flower, but it is very pleasant, and not
overpowering; and the plant has the peculiarity that, like the Sweet
Briar, but unlike other Roses, it gives out its scent of its own accord
and unsought, and chiefly in the evening, so that if the window of a
bedroom near which this rose is trained is left open, the scent will
soon be perceived in the room. This peculiarity did not escape the
notice of Lord Bacon. "Because the breath of flowers," he says, "is far
sweeter in the air (when it comes and goes like the warbling of music)
than in the hand, therefore nothing is more fit for that delight than to
know what be the flowers and pl