By Thomas Hare, Esq. 



243 



exhibit nothing of the kind : but the filaments of the Eglan- 

 tine Sponge are essentially different from the moss, investing 

 those varieties of Rose, which are known to us with that parti- 

 cular appendage. 



It has occurred to me, that the moss of Roses may pos- 

 sibly be no other than an altered form of those glandiferous 

 processes, with which their peduncles and calices are fur- 

 nished ; for where resinous matter exists largely, superabun- 

 dant moisture, as a stimulus, and shade, as a cause of relax- 

 ation, may increase the elastic power of a plant through- 

 out; and thus the pores of its exterior coverings more 

 readily allow the egress of that resinous matter which fonns 

 so considerable a part of the moss of Roses, each main fibre 

 of which appears to proceed from a pore, subdividing into 

 many fibrillae : or in other words, the glandular appear, by 

 the new stimulus communicated to them, to form secondary 

 processes, which abounding with resinous exudation consti- 

 tute the moss of Roses. 



In opposition to this idea, it may be remarked that Roses 

 have been frequently known to lose their mossy character, 

 on being removed from an open situation in which they had 

 previously flourished, to a shady one ; the moss becoming 

 elongated, and proceeding from a reduced number of pores. 

 But as the same cause often operates to the production of 

 dissimilar effects, I humbly imagine that this circumstance 

 serves to corroborate rather than to invalidate my conjectures. 



The stem and branches of the earlier offspring of the 

 Somersetshire Rose, had much more the common character of 

 plants which had grown in the shade, than those which 

 have been imported from France, namely, a more humid 



