Rosacece Rosa. 159 



herself a celebrated rosary towards the end of the last century. 

 It is one of the best varieties England has produced. Ac- 

 cording to Andrews it approaches both R. Gdllica and R. Da- 

 mascena, having the foliage of the former and the fruit of the 

 latter. The flowers are almost invariably solitary, large, 

 semi-double, and of the most beautiful bright carmine. The 

 wood is of a paler green, with numerous fine thorns, and the 

 foliage of a lighter green than in most other Roses. But 

 what distinguishes it still better is the long continued 

 succession of flowers, which are produced from early Summer 

 till late in the Autumn ; and hence it has become the parent 

 of a multiplicity of new varieties possessing the same advan- 

 tage of a protracted flowering season. These are known as 

 Hybrid Perpetual or Portland Hybrid varieties. It is almost 

 beyond a doubt that a great number of these are due to fresh 

 crosses, not only between the primitive types, the Damask 

 and Provins, but also with other species, thus offering such a 

 confused mixture of characters as to render satisfactory classifi- 

 cation impossible. It is supposed that the beautiful bright 

 crimson Rose du Roi is a descendant of the Portland Rose, the 

 merit of discovering which is attributed to M. Souchet, formerly 

 gardener at the Palace of Fontainebleau. Few Roses enjoy 

 such wide-spread popularity, and are cultivated on so large a 

 scale as this is in Paris and its environs. 1 



VI. ROS^E VILLOS^E, Downy Roses. This not very natural and 

 ill-defined tribe is distinguished by the following characteristics : 

 Stems erect, inflexible ; spines almost straight ; leaflets oval or 

 oblong, with diverging teeth ; calyx-leaves persistent on the 

 fruit and connivent ; disk fleshy, closing the entrance to the 

 calyx-tube. Its affinity is on the one hand with the Sweet 

 Briars, and on the other with the Dog Roses. 



The most important species of this group is R. alba, the 

 White Rose, which for the beauty of its flowers equals perhaps 

 R. centifolia itself. This is a European bushy shrub from 5 

 to 10 feet high, with remarkably glaucous foliage composed 

 of 5-7 leaflets shortly oval or almost round. The flowers are 

 large and abundant, solitary or in corymbs, showing according 

 to the varieties every shade between white and bright rose. 

 The fruit is oblong, and scarlet when ripe. 



1 Recent investigations have led to these Roses being united as one species under 

 the name of B. Gdllica. 



