2\2 



On Moss Roses. 



and very generally believed to be the first of the kind ever 

 seen in this country, may have been the progeny of those 

 removed from the west of England to Guernsey ; since it 

 was stated, that no others than those sold to Messrs. Lee 

 and Kennedy had been seen in France. 



As the Rose de Meaux has never been known to mature 

 seed in this country, it is not to be concluded that the in- 

 dividual plant of Mr. Penny's garden received its new 

 character by impregnation from the farina of the common 

 Moss Rose which grew near it ; for although it may be al- 

 leged that generative organs have been seen in both these 

 Roses, yet they are always too imperfectly developed to ad- 

 mit of the production of seed. 



The accession of Moss to the Rose de Meaux, is not 

 more extraordinary than the numerous variations which the 

 genus Rosa at large has experienced by soil, culture, and local 

 situation. I have in many instances observed the offsets of 

 the most double and high-coloured Belladonna, or Maiden's- 

 blush Rose, produce semi-double and almost single Roses, 

 of a pure white ; while suckers of the semi-double white, 

 have been known to produce the Belladonna perfectly cha- 

 racterised ; and shoots of the common Moss Rose to produce 

 unmossed flowers. 



The moss-like excrescence so frequently produced from 

 the nidus of the Cynips Rosse, on the branches of the common 

 Dog Rose, and which has been called the Eglantine Sponge, 

 or Bedeguar, seems to have suggested the idea of some na- 

 turalists, that hymenopterous insects, by piercing the epi- 

 dermis in many places, might promote considerably the 

 mossy character of Roses, which, in their general habits, 



