32 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
the old French Rose. Thory (1817) refers R. holosericea to R. gallica L., 
quoting L'Obel's figure which is the same as Gerard's. Finally 
Lindley (1820) refers R. holosericea to R. gallica L. 
In any case, judging by the descriptions quoted above, it seems 
clear that whatever Gerard's Velvet Rose (R. holosericea) may have 
been, it was not the Moss- Rose (R. muscosa Mill.),* and we can find 
no evidence that the Moss-Rose was known in England in 1596, to 
support the repeated statements in the books on garden Roses from 
Rivers (1840) to Pemberton (1920), that it was introduced in that 
year from Holland. 
So far as we know, there is no mention of the Moss-Rose in Chaucer, 
Shakespeare, or in any literature of that period. Parkinson (1629) 
describes in detail twenty-eight forms of Roses, but none corresponds 
in any way to the Moss-Rose. Ferrarius (1633) in Italy, Chabraeus 
(1677) in Switzerland, Liger (1708) in France, and Salmon (1710) 
in England, give long lists, descriptions, and figures of various kinds 
of Roses, but there is no trace of the Moss-Rose in any of them. There 
is, .however, in Ducastel (1746), quoted by Paquet (1845) and Jamain 
and Forney (1873), a circumstantial account of the existence of the 
Moss-Rose in the south of France, at Carcassonne, as far back as 1696, 
and this appears to be the earliest date mentioned for the existence 
of the Moss-Rose. The account is that the Hundred-leaved Moss- 
Rose was in cultivation in Cotentin, Messin, and La Manche in 1746, 
and that it was brought there by Freard Ducastel, who had found it 
at Carcassonne, where it had been known for half a century. 
The first botanical reference to the Moss-Rose is apparently that 
of Boerhaave (1720) in his Index of Plants cultivated in the Physic 
Garden at Leyden under the name Rosa rubra plena spinosissima, 
pedunculo muscoso. In 1724 the Moss-Rose is said to have been 
in cultivation in London, for Miller (1724) states that it is included 
in Robert Furber's Catalogue of plants cultivated for sale at Kensing- 
ton. Miller (1760) tells us that he first saw the Moss-Rose " in the 
year 1727, in the garden of Dr. Boerhaave near Leyden, who was so 
good as to give me one of the plants." On the whole we consider it 
safer to accept Miller's 1727 date. 
Martyn (1807) refers to what is apparently the first figure of the 
Moss-Rose in Hort.-AngL, a Catalogue of Trees, Shrubs, Plants, and 
Flowers cultivated for sale in the Gardens near London, 1730 (folio) 
(66 n. 14, t. 18), in which it is called Rosa provincialis spinosissima 
pedunculo muscoso, and under the same name it appears in Miller 
(1733) who adds " or the Moss Provence Rose." 
The second illustration of the Moss-Rose that we can trace is 
in that exquisite little book, " The Flower Garden Display 'd " by Furber 
(1732) under the name of ' Moss Provence Rose. ' The coloured drawing, 
though rather fantastic, is unmistakable. In the letterpress it is 
called the ' Moss Province Rose/ and it is said to be " like the Province 
Rose, and bears blossoms almost as double as that, only somewhat 
* Dr. Jackson, to whom I submitted this opinion, concurs. 
