345 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
dry and harsh. From the center of this leafy 
cluster, the flower-stalk arises in May, and in 
vigorous plants is three or four feet high, and 
thickly clothed with smaller, very slender 
leaves. The flowers are borne at the top of 
this stem, in a dense cluster; they have the 
general structure of the Lily Family, to which 
long, with (usually) seven elliptical leaflets, 
which are light-colored on the under surface, 
being covered with a down of dense, somewhat 
glandular hairs, and conspicuously veined ; the 
upper surface of the leaves, on the contrary, is 
perfectly smooth, somewhat shining, and of a 
very dark green; the surface is strongly 
the ramanas rose of japan.—( Bosa rugosa. ?) 
able to florists—its tendency to sport into new 
forms—is that which makes the plant so un¬ 
certain in the wild state. In the limited terri¬ 
tory of Great Britain one learned botanist 
makes but five species of their native roses, 
while other learned botanists hesitate between 
19 and 20 species among the same plants. We 
the plant belongs, and though small individ¬ 
ually, being less than half an inch across, they 
form such an ample cluster of pure white, that 
they are quite showy. The whole aspect of 
the plant is stately; the tuft of radical leaves, 
gracefully bending over, surmounted by the 
conspicuous flower cluster, make it look like 
an Australian rather than a native plant. It is 
well worthy of cultivation, and is much better 
know in European gardens than in ours. The 
English works advise that it be planted in a 
very sandy place, but it does not seem to be 
very particular as to soil; we have it in an 
ordinary border, where it has been two or three 
years, and being thoroughly established, it 
blooms each spring with as much luxuriance 
as if it were on its native barrens. 
-- «-—MOB—---- 
The Ramanas Rose of Japan. 
With florists roses, provided labels do not 
get lost or misplaced, there is but little diffi¬ 
culty. If we are only sure that a particular 
plant is Isabella Sprunt or Perle de Lyon, we 
do not go back of that fact, but when we come 
to speak of roses in their natural state, as spe¬ 
cies, we are at once surrounded by difficulties. 
The very quality that makes the rose so valu¬ 
mention this to show that it is not surprising, 
when we came to study up an interesting 
Japanese rose,that we should be much in doubt 
what botanical name to give it. But first as to 
the rose itself, which we met with several-years 
ago in the garden of Mr. James Hogg, to whom 
it had been sent from Japan by Mr. Thomas 
Hogg. It being quite unlike any other rose in 
our garden, we were much pleased to receive 
in the course of a few months specimens from 
Mr. Hogg, and also from Mr. John Saul, Wash¬ 
ington, D. C., and no roses in our little collec¬ 
tion afford us more pleasure than these. Those 
whose standard of beauty in a rose is the sick¬ 
ly, though fashionable, cream color, and faint- 
away fragrance of the teas, or who think a rose 
not worth looking at, unless it is as double as 
a Drumhead cabbage, will hardly consider this 
as desirable, but those who can see beauty 
in a plant, even if it does not have double 
flowers, will regard it as a fine ornamental 
shrub. This Japanese rose grows from two to 
three feet high, and with its numerous branches 
forms a very compact bush. Its young stems 
are very downy, and thickly beset with sharp, 
but weak prickles, of very unequal size. The 
stems being short-jointed, the ample leaves are 
brought very close together, and make a dense 
mass of foliage; the leaves, about four inches 
marked by depressions, corresponding to the 
veins so prominent below, which makes the 
leaves appear plaited, and adds to their beauty. 
The stipules are comparatively small. Taken 
as a shrub, without reference to its flowers, its 
dense habit, and abundance and richness of its 
foliage, make it a most pleasing object. While 
other plants in the same bed have been attack¬ 
ed by all the many insects that infest roses, the 
foliage of this has passed into August without 
a blemish. The flowers are produced in clus¬ 
ters, at the ends of the shoots of the season, on 
short downy stalks, and have a globular calyx 
tube, with (usually) five long-pointed lobes; 
the corolla is very large, it being three and 
four inches across, with five or more ample 
dark rose-purple petals, against which the dark 
yellow stamens, in a very distinct ring, show 
with fine effect. The flower has a very marked 
and agreeable wild-rose fragrance. The fruit 
or “ hip ” is completely spehrical, or somewhat 
depressed, about £ of an inch in diameter, of 
a fine red when ripe, and looking much like 
a crab-apple. The plants proved perfectly har¬ 
dy near New York, during the past severe 
winter. The engraving, much reduced in size, 
gives the form, but can not convey the rich 
coloring, or the remarkably robust expression 
of the plant. The difficulty of applying botan- 
