

following is the account given by Sir James Smith of the 



species provincialis. 



" Native of the south of Europe, at least it is so con- 

 11 sidered, though a plant too generally cultivated for any 

 " thing to be averred on this subject. With us it is hardy, 

 " flowering in June and July. Most of the varieties are 

 11 increased by roots or layers, and remain tolerably distinct; 



iC 



the different forms of variety y are least permanent. 



Stems 



•« 



cc usually 3 or 4 feet high, straight, very prickly. Leaflets 

 m 5, of a rounded bluntish figure, veiny and rugose. Sth* 

 pulas linear-lanceolate, acute, undivided ; most entire in 

 " their lower part. Flowers two or three, or more, at the 

 " top of each branch, large, delightfully fragrant, of that 

 " peculiar bright crimson hue, popularly termed a rose- 

 " colour, with broad brown stains on the backs of the outer 

 " petals, which are permanent in the otherwise white variety, 

 " represented in Miss Lawrance's t. 4. In all our cultivated 

 varieties the flowers are double, with slight remains of 

 stamens or styles; so that the fruit never ripens. We have 

 however seen, in the ample collection of roses at Messrs. 

 Lee and Kennedy's, perfectly single flowers of the Moss 



<i 



* : 



< i 





Ros 



d 



which those experienced cultivators have prove 

 to be only a variety of the Common Provius Rose. lit- 

 '" deed we have been told in Italy, that this variety loses 



i. 



its mossiness, almost immediately, in that climate." 



How 



w the Moss Rose has been proved to 1 

 Common Provins one, remains untold. 



be a variety of 



in 



the Common Provins one, remains untold. The present 

 single Moss variety, we know has not been produced 

 that state from seed ; but reduced to it from the double or 

 rather full state (either accidentally or intentionally) by 

 peculiar culture. Accordingly we find it to be barren, as 

 we should have expected from the mode by which that 

 state had been induced; but which most probably it would 

 not have been, had it sprung up single from the seed. 

 The only evidence we know of a mutual variation between 

 the .Moss and Common Hose, is the similarity of the two 

 in all points except the moss-like viscous efflorescence of the 

 iirst; a difference of such a nature as may be easily sup- 

 posed incidental, and indeed is admitted to be so in one of 

 the varieties of another species of the genus. 



Ilossig, 



who has lately published a work on Roses, con- 

 taining good coloured figures, says, that the AIoss Rose is 

 found on the Alps. • - - 



