DESCRIPTION OP THE ROSE. 171 



MUSK, is an improvement on the Double White, which 

 it much resembles. NIVEA, or the SNOWY MUSK, can 

 hardly be said to belong to the group, as it blooms only 

 once in thfc year. OPHIK, PRENCESS OP NASSAU, and 

 RIVEKS, are also good examples of this family. 



Rosa Moschata Hybridal Having treated of the 

 China, Tea, and Musk roses, we now come to the hybrid 

 offspring which they have jointly produced. In 1817, 

 M. Noisette, a French florist at Charleston, S.C., raised 

 a seedling from the Musk Rose, impregnated with the 

 pollen of the common China Rose. The seedling was 

 different from either parent, but had the vigorous growth 

 of the Musk Rose, together with its property of blooming 

 in clusters, and a slight trace of its peculiar fragrance. 

 This was the original Noisette Rose, and it has been the 

 parent of a numerous family ; but as it has, in turn, been 

 fertilized with the pollen of the Tea, and perhaps of other 

 roses, many of its descendants have lost its peculiar charac- 

 teristics, so that in some cases they cannot be distinguished 

 from Tea roses. It is thus that confusion is constantly 

 arising in all the families of the rose ; the groups becoming 



