ROSA CENTIPOLIA. 
39 
with short bristly hairs ; the petals are numerous,* and of a beau- 
tiful red colour, which varies in depth from a pale to a deep 
blush ; the filaments are numerous, slender, short, inserted into 
the calyx, and furnished with triangular anthers ; the germens are 
numerous, supporting short, villous styles, terminated with obtuse 
stigmata. 
Botanists enumerate a number of different species of the rose, 
and their varieties, depending upon culture or other circumstances, 
are almost endless ; so much so as often to render it difficult to 
ascertain to what species a particular rose belongs. We have reason 
to think that the Rosa Damascena is often confounded with the Rosa 
Centifolia, and with that species which Miller calls the Provence 
rose, but which latter we are incUned to think is only a variety of 
the Damascena. Again, it does not appear to us that botanists are 
agreed as to which is the Rosa Damascena, or which the Centifolia, 
some giving the latter term to the pale, and some to the red rose. 
The Rosa Damascena was considered by Linnaeus as a variety only of 
the Rosa Centifolia ; but Wildenow and others have arranged it as a 
distinct species. We apply the term Rosa Centifolia to the pale 
poly-petalous rose. The term Centifolia has been given to this rose 
from the supposed number of its petals; but it is to be understood 
as conveying rather the idea of multitude than of that precise num- 
ber. Indeed we think, as a specific name, this term is misapplied, 
if LinuEBus be correct in making one of the generic characters of this 
shrub to be quinque-petalous ; in fact, the rose (this species in par- 
ticular) only comes under our observation in its state of luxurious 
efflorescence, when by a forced culture a number, or perhaps the 
entire, of the stamina are converted into petals. When the whole of 
the stamina become petals the flower ceases to produce seed, from 
the want of the germinating principle, as happens with other double 
flowers. But this luxuriance is much more frequently observed in 
the Provence, or cabbage rose, as it is termed from the fulness of 
its flowers, than in any other species or variety. The petals of all 
the varieties of poly-petalous roses possess a very fragrant odour, 
and it is presumed are indiscriminately used in the distillation of 
rose water ; it therefore becomes of little moment for pharmaceutical 
purposes, to enter minutely into the examination of the different spe- 
cies : we may, however, observe that the Provence rose is by far 
the most fragrant, and usually grows to the largest size, and there- 
* In the natural state, the corolla consists of five petals only. 
