The most esteemed kinds of rose among us are those of Præneste[1885] and Campania.[1886] Some persons have added to these varieties the rose of Miletus,[1887] the flower of which is an extremely brilliant red, and has never more than a dozen petals. The next to it is the rose of Trachyn,[1888] not so red as the last, and then that of Alabanda,[1889] with whitish petals, but not so highly esteemed. The least esteemed of all, however, is the thorn rose,[1890] the petals of which are numerous, but extremely small. The essential points of difference in the rose are the number[1891] of the petals, the comparative number[1892] of thorns on the stem, the colour, and the smell. The number of the petals, which is never less than five, goes on increasing in amount, till we find one variety with as many as a hundred, and thence known as the “centifolia:”[1893] in Italy, it is to be found in Campania, and in Greece, in the vicinity of Philippi, though this last is not the place of its natural[1894] growth. Mount Pangæeus,[1895] in the same vicinity, produces a rose with numerous petals of diminutive size: the people of those parts are in the habit of transplanting it, a method which greatly tends to improve its growth. This kind, however, is not remarkable for its smell, nor yet is the rose which has a very large or very broad petal: indeed, we may state in a few words, that the best proof of the perfume of the flower is the comparative roughness of the calyx.[1896] Cæpio, who lived in the reign of the Emperor Tiberius, asserts that the centifolia is never employed for chaplets, except at the extreme[1897] points of union as it were, being remarkable neither for its smell[1898] nor its beauty. There is another variety of rose, too, called the “Grecian” rose by our people, and “lychnis”[1899] by the Greeks: it grows nowhere except in humid soils, and has never more than five petals: it does not exceed the violet in size, and is destitute of smell. There is another kind, again, known to us as the “Græcula”[1900] the petals of which are tightly rolled together, and which never open except when pressed in the hand, it having always the appearance, in fact, of being in bud: the petals of it are remarkably large. Another kind, again, springs from a stem like that of the mallow, the leaves being similar to those of the olive—the name given to it is “macetum.”[1901] There is the rose of autumn, too, known to us as the “coroniola,”[1902] which is of a middle size, between the varieties just mentioned. All these kinds, however, are destitute of smell, with the exception of the coroniola, and the one which grows on the bramble:[1903] so extended is the scope for fictitious[1904] productions!