NAT. ORDER. 
Rosacece. 
ROSA MUSCOSA. MOSS ROSE. 
Class XII. Icosandria. Order V. Polygynia. 
Gen. Char. Calyx, pitcher-shaped, five-cleft, fleshy, contracted at 
the neck. Petals, five. Seeds, many, hispid, fastened to the 
inner side of the calyx. 
Spe. Char. Fruit, ovate, turgid, with the peduncles hispid. Stem 
and Petioles, prickly. 
The Rosa muscosa agrees very much in character with the 
Rosa centifolia. The peduncles are bracteate; leaflets oblong or 
ovate, wrinkled ; disc thickened, closing the throat ; sepals compound. 
This division comprises the portion which has most particularly 
interested the lovers of flowers. It is probable that the earliest of 
which there are any records as being cultivated belongs to some 
portion of it ; but to which particular species those of the Cyrene 
or Mount Panggeus are to be referred, is now too late to inquire. 
The ottar of Roses, which is an important article of commerce, 
is either obtained from them indiscriminately, as in the manufactory 
at Florence, conducted by a convent of friars, or from some partic- 
ular kind, as in India. It appears, from specimens brought from 
Chizapore, by Col. Hardwicke, that the Moss Rose is there exclu- 
sively, used for obtaining the essential oil. The Persians also make 
use of a sort which Koempfer calls Rosa shirazensis, from its growing 
about Shiraz, in preference to others. It is, however, well known 
Vol. iii.— 119. 
