rose. 259 



solitary, pedunculate, lateral, or terminal; the peduncles elong- 

 ated, more or less hispid, glandular. The calyx consists of a 

 globose tube, and a limb with five downy, alternately pinnati- 

 fid segments. The corolla is large and usually of an intense 

 purplish red colour ; the petals are slightly crenate, and yel- 

 lowish at the base. The stamens are numerous, with subulate 

 filaments and linear, incurved yellow anthers. The germens 

 are numerous, ovate, supporting filiform villous styles, conni- 

 vent below, terminated by capitate truncate stigmas. The fruit 

 is somewhat globose, nearly smooth, and of a pale crimson 

 colour. Plate 38, fig. 4, (a) longitudinal section of the fruit, 

 showing the carpels. 



This elegant and beautiful shrub is indigenous to the south 

 of Europe, and is common in our gardens, where it flowers in 

 June and July. 



The officinal Red Rose is named gallica, from its being 

 considered a legitimate native of France ; whereas most of the 

 cultivated roses may be traced to the East. It is styled by 

 some of our old writers the English Rose. We find the French 

 writers call it Rose de Provins ; but in most English works the 

 name of Provins Rose is bestowed upon the Hundred-leaved 

 or cabbage Rose (R. centifolia). 



The genus Rosa is extensive, not merely as regards the 

 number of species, but in the almost infinite varieties which have 

 arisen from the assiduous cultivation of every favourite kind ; 

 in consequence of which the botanical study of the Roses is 

 intricate, and so closely allied are the different kinds, and 

 their distinctive characters so variable, that there is much 

 diversity of opinion as to which are really species and which 

 varieties. The best esteemed and well known kinds are the 

 Scotch Rose (R. spinosissima), of which there are more than 

 300 varieties ; the Hundred-leaved Rose (R. centifoUa) ; the 

 Damask Rose (R. Damascena) ; the White Rose (R. alba) ; the 

 Sweet Briar, or Eglantine, (R. rubiginosa) ; the Indian or 

 Monthly Rose (/£. Indica), and the species now under con- 

 sideration. 



It is quite unnecessary to say anything in praise of the Rose ; 

 in every land emphatically the flower of love and poetry ; and 

 signalised by almost every poet ancient and modern. Indeed 

 to repeat all that has been said and sung respecting the queen 

 of flowers would fill a volume. In the glowing fiction of the 



