DESCRIPTION OF THE ROSE. 105 



The Musk is a rose much more familiarly known. It 

 descends from a Persian or Syrian progenitor, and its 

 vigorous jrowth, rich clusters of bloom, and peculiar 

 fragrance, have long made it a favorite. But by far the 

 most interesting and valuable among the unmixed races 

 of ever-blooming roses are the numberless offspring of 

 Rosa Indica, in its several varieties. To it we owe all the 

 China and Tea-scented roses, while to its foreign alliances 

 we are indebted for a vast and increasing host of brilliant 

 hybrids. 



Thus, from the families of pure blood, we come at length 

 to those in which is mingled that of two or more distinct 

 races. Convey the pollen of a China rose to the stigmas 

 of a French, Damask, or Provence rose, and from the 

 resulting seed an offspring arises different from either 

 parent. Hence a new group of roses known as the Hybrid 

 Chinas. The parents are both of moderate growth. The 

 offspring is usually of such vigor as to form with readiness 

 a pillar eight feet high. Its foliage is distinct, its bloom 

 often as profuse and brilliant as that of the China, and its 

 constitution as hardy, or nearly so, as that of the French 

 Rose. Unlike the former, it blooms but once in the year, 

 or only in a few exceptional instances shows a straggling 

 autumnal flower. By a vicious system of subdivision, the 



