More than fifteen thousand rose species and cultivars are grown worldwide - thousands more are extinct, yet they live on in old nursery catalogs, books, and journals. Every one of these plants has its own distinctive name, given perhaps by the person who first picked it for a sweetheart, a botanist who dissected it long ago, a horticulturalist who nurtured it, or one of the innumerable others who felt a special kinship to a particular flower.<BR>Former editor-in-chief of Martha Stewart Living Douglas Brenner and renowned rose expert Stephen Scanniello tackle the thorny task of digging up the history behind rose names. Their stories are filled with enough romance, tragedy, mystery, scandal, and earthy delights to satisfy even those who would never dream of actually tending a plant. For instance, did you know that the gallica rose's perfume wafted through Pliny's Roman villa and lulled Marie Antoinette on the night before her wedding; that roses in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries were mainly raised for medicinal purposes; that roses' names often vary from country to country; and that the world of naming is one of complicated and fiercely guarded copyrights and patents?<BR>With ornate vintage art and photographs, A Rose by Any Name unearths the roots of rose lore-debunking myths and exposing long-standing rumors - and reveals how people, communities, and cultures across the globe and throughout the ages have identified the living things that matter to them most.