Rosacece Rosa. 155 



R. centifolia, Hundred-leaved Eose, is the true classical 

 species, one of the most beautiful, the most deliciously scented, 

 the one sung by the poets of all epochs, and the one which held 

 the first rank in our gardens until the arrival of the Perpetual 

 species from China and India, which without sufficient reason 

 have banished it to the second or third place. The attar of 

 Koses of commerce is furnished to a great extent by tbe varieties 

 of this species. Even in France it is cultivated on a consider- 

 able scale for the needs of perfumery. 



It is a bush 3 to 6 feet in height, having its stems armed 

 with unequal spines interspersed with bristles and glandular 

 hairs. The leaves consist of five large broadly ovate doubly 

 toothed leaflets with glandular hairs on the margins. The 

 flowers are large and more or less double according to the varie- 

 ties, solitary or two or three together on the same peduncle, 

 drooping, rose or rosy carmine, with the calyx-tube clothed 

 with glandular viscose odoriferous hairs. The fruit is ovoid- 

 oblong, but never much elongated, of an orange or reddish colour 

 when ripe. 



It is not known with certainty whether this species is a native 

 of Southern Europe, although it is found naturalised in many 

 places ; but it is probable that it was originally brought from 

 the East at a very remote period. 



The Hundred-leaved Eose has varied in all directions through 

 the influence of climates, soils, culture, and above all, we be- 

 lieve, by crossing ; but there are three particularly remarkable 

 variations one affecting the size, another the colour, and a 

 third the hairy clothing of the calyx-tube. To the first modi- 

 fication belong the Miniature Provence or Pompon Roses, ex- 

 ceedingly dwarf bushes, whose flowers, without ceasing to be 

 double, are veritable miniatures. To the second belong those 

 in which the normal rosy carmine is replaced by a more or less 

 pure white ; and to the third belong the Moss Roses, already 

 numerous in varieties, which are distinguished by the curious 

 transformation of the hairs of the calyx-tube, and sometimes 

 also those of the peduncles and petioles, into a .green wad very 

 similar to moss. This class of Eoses is very much prized in 

 England, where, it appears, the first Moss Eoses raised from seed 

 were observed. 



Nursery catalogues contain the names of several hundreds 

 of varieties of the Centifolia class, either with or without the 

 qualification of hybrid. We have already said that the arbi- 



