Rosacea—Losa. 159 
herself a celebrated rosary towards the end of the last century. 
It is one of the best varieties Enyland has produced. Ac- 
cording to Andrews it approaches both RB. Gdllica and R. Da- 
mascénd, 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.} 
VI. Rdsa# Vittdsa, 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 2. 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 2. Gallica, 
