The ancient history of the rose / by Randle Wilbraham Falconer.

  • Falconer, Randle Wilbraham, 1816-1881.
Date:
1839
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The ancient history of the rose / by Randle Wilbraham Falconer. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    the impress of a man's foot. Theophrastus, who also men- tions this rose, says it bore fruit of a red colour. Dioscorides ntrrees with this account, and says the fruit resembles the nu- cleus of an olive. Pliny, however, states that this plant bears a black berry ; which, Bodaeus a Stapel remarks, no other author has mentioned, and considers that the passage in Pliny refers to another plant, subsequently mentioned by that author. Among the thorns of the stem of the Rosa sylvestris grew a round sponge-like substance, resembling a chestnut; the presence of this excrescence upon this kind of rose is also mentioned by Marcellus, an old writer on materia medica. Pliny says it grew particularly upon the cynorhodon, and that it contained a worm or grub which produced the insects called cantharides. The same insects are mentioned by Aristotle to issue from a worm found upon the xwukuvSy^, or dog-briar (?). In the spongy substance alluded to, we recognise the moss-like prickly excrescences which are found upon all rose trees, but especially upon the MoHa canina, and which are the habitations of the insect called Cynips rosoe. Commentators on Pliny regard the R. sylvestris of this author to be the R. Eglanteria of Linnaeus, now the R. rubiginosa, which, according to Fries, Linnaeus for a long time referred to the species R. canina. The cynorhodon of Theophrastus, the cynosbaton and oxyacantha of Dioscorides, the cynacantha of Aristotle, and the R. sylvestris, cynorhodon, cynosbaton, cynapan- xim, and neurospaslon of Pliny have been generally considered as identical. There still appear, however, to have been some doubts upon tliis point, which are not yet satisfactorily explained. It would be uselessly occupying space, to enter at length upon the consideration of this question. The R. sylvestris appears to have obtainetl its synonyme, R. canina or cynorhodon, from a supposition that its root was a beneficial remedy for bites of mad dogs; an instance of its curative powers is cited by Pliny. The roses mentioned by Theophrastus are few in number, when compared with the list given by Pliny: four only are enumerated, viz.— 1. 'Po'Sov wevrat^uXXa. 3. 'P. B\xo<Ta<^vXXa.. 2. 'P. Sa;8ex«$uXXa. 4-. 'P. IxaTovra^^yAAa. The first of these is considered by Stackhonse to have been the same as the ^osa canina of Linnaeus *; the second has not been referred to any species with which we are at jiresent acquainted; the third is thought to resemble the R. cinnamo- mea; and of the fourth, or hundred-leaved rose, Theophrastus says, The inner petals are exceedingly small; for the blossom- Illustrationes Theophrasti, &c. Auctore J. Stackhouse. Oxoii. 1711.