"The Red Rose, which I call English because this rose is more frequent
and used in England than in other places, never groweth so high as the
Damask Rose-bush, but more usually abideth low and shooteth forth many
branches from the Rose-bush (and is but seldom suffered to grow up as
the Damask Rose into standards) with a green bark thinner set with
prickles and longer and greener leaves on the upper side than in the
white, yet with an eye of white upon them, five likewise most usually
set upon a stalk and grayish, or whitish, underneath. The Roses, or
flowers, do very much vary according to their site and abiding, for
some are of an orient red, or deep crimson, color and very double
(although never so double as the White), which, when it is full blown,
hath the largest leaves of any other Rose; some of them again are
paler, tending somewhat to a Damask; and some are of so pale a red as
that it is rather of the color of a Canker Rose, yet all for the most
part with larger leaves than the Damask, and with many more yellow
threads in the middle. The scent hereof is much better than in the
White, but not comparable to the excellency of the Damask Rose, yet
this Rose, being well dried and well kept, will hold both color and
scent longer than the Damask."
THE WHITE ROSE (_Rosa Anglica alba_).
"The White Rose is of two kinds," says Parkinson, "the one more thick
and double than the other. The one riseth up in some shadowy places
unto eight or ten foot high, with a stock of great bigness for a rose.
The other growing seldom higher than a Damask Rose. Both these Roses
have somewhat smaller and whiter green leaves than in many other Roses,
five most usually set on a stock and more white underneath, as also a
whiter green bark, armed with sharp thorns, or prickles. The flowers
in the one are whitish with an eye, or shew, of a blush, especially
towards the ground, or bottom, of the flower, very thick, double and
close set together; and, for the most part, not opening itself so
largely and fully as either the Red, or Damask Rose. The other more
white, less thick and double and opening itself more, and some so
little double (as but of two or three rows) that they might be held to
be single, yet all of little or no smell at all."
From this _Rosa alba_, Pliny says, the isle of Albion derived its
name--a happy thought when we remember that the rose is still the
national emblem of England.
MUSK-ROSE (_Rosa moschata_). Musk-roses and eglantine mingled with
honeysuckle formed the canopy beneath which _Titania_ slumbered on a
bank made soft and lovely with wild thyme, oxlips and nodding violets.
And in the "coronet of fresh and fragrant flowers" that the dainty
little fairy queen placed upon the hairy temples of _Bottom_ the
Weaver, musk-roses were conspicuous; and the sweetness of these was
intensified by "the round and Orient pearls of dew" that swelled upon
the petals, as the "pretty flowerets bewailed their own disgrace."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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