ROSE. 
proper botanical characters, and are so fused 
into one another as to defy the efforts of all but 
the most studious amateurs to trace them; and 
some even consist entirely of fancy varieties, 
and have been grouped, not on any principle of 
constitution or form or habit, but on the prepos- 
terous ground of mere parentage. Even the pre- 
sent botanical classification is difficult to a novice, 
and has been in aconsiderable degree stultified and 
confounded by the multiplication of all sorts of 
hybrids; and the present horticultural classifica- 
tion is both absurd and bewildering, and has fora 
long time become increasingly uncertain and un- 
settled, and not only wants proper characters 
for its families, but distributes some classes with 
very distinct natural characters through two or 
three or even a larger number of its groups. If 
the properties of climbing and dwarf, of solitary- 
flowered and bunch-flowered, be adopted as sub- 
divisional characters, four families, the China 
rose, the double garden rose, the perpetual rose, 
and the briar-rose, might probably be made to 
comprise all the eleven hundred varieties or so 
which at present figure in the best floral cata- 
logues. The China might comprise all the pre- 
sent China, the tea-scented, the miniature, and 
such of the bunch-flowered or noisette as have 
smooth wood and continuous growth, and might 
be subdivided into the climbing, the climbing 
noisette, the dwarf, and the dwarf noisette ; the 
double garden might comprise all the deciduous 
kinds, or all the out-of-door summer-blooming 
sorts, except the perpetual and the moss; the 
perpetual might comprise the moss-roses, and all 
the other sorts which send out a succession of 
blooms till a late period in autumn,—and both 
this and the double garden might be subdivided 
in the same manner as the China; and the briar- 
rose might comprise all the sorts, whether true 
briars, or Scotch roses, or whatever else, which 
have short joints, and flower all along the stem, 
and are perfectly deciduous.—We shall, in the 
sequel of this article, first notice some of the 
most remarkable species; next, give a brief 
general notice or two respecting the finest gar- 
den varieties; and next, say something respect- 
ing the culture and propagation of the garden 
varieties. 
The dog-rose, #. canina, is common in the 
hedges of Britain, and in most parts of Continen- 
tal Europe. It is a beautiful wild ornament, 
and exhales a delicious fragrance. Its stem is 
smooth, and has pairs of alternate, equal, hooked, 
bright-red prickles, and sends out elongated, 
arched, spreading branches, and rises to the 
height of 8 or 10 feet; its leaves are pinnate, 
aud have each seven leaflets, and stand on glan- 
dular, pubescent, prickly footstalks ; its leaflets 
are ovate, pointed, and smooth, and have a shin- 
ing upper surface and a deeper green under one; 
its flowers come out on either solitary or corym- 
bose peduncles, and are odorous and either 
white, or flesh-coloured, or pink, and bloom in 
June and July; and its fruit is the well-known 
common hip or hep,—an ovate, smooth, fleshy, 
red-berry-like calyx, containing about 30 long 
angular seeds within a loose packing of white, 
silky, irritating bristles. Some distinct varieties, 
such as the needle-leaved, the grey, the hill, and 
the thicket, occur wild in Britain; and some 
ornamental varieties, such as the Bourbon, 
Schott’s, and the Egyptian, have been intro- 
duced from other countries, and are cultivated 
in gardens. The fruit of the dog-rose has a place 
in the pharmacopoeia, and possesses cooling pro- 
perties, and is used in the form of a confection. 
Its sweet, pleasant, acidulous taste depends on 
sugar and uncombined citric acid.—Six indigen- 
ous species, Sherard’s, Forster’s, the naked, the 
twiggy, the spriggy, and the bractescent, belong to 
the saine subgenus as the dog-rose; and all these 
occur in hedges, and have pink flowers, and 
bloom in June and July,—two of them, the 
twiggy and the spriggy, have a trailing or pro- 
cumbent habit, and are one-half or two-thirds as 
long in the stem as the dog-rose,—and the other 
four have an upright habit and an average 
height of about 6 feet. The China roses, the 
Boursault roses, and the small-leaved roses,—the 
first introduced from Bengal about 60 years ago, 
the second originating in a hybrid in 1821, and 
the third introduced from India in 1823,—also 
belong to the dog-rose subgenus. 
The Scotch rose or spiniest rose, £. spinosis- 
sima, grows wild on sandy heaths in Scotland, 
England, and most parts of Continental Europe. 
Its height is commonly about 2 or 3 feet, but 
varies with soil and culture and variety ; its 
branches or shoots are numerous, upright, and 
very prickly or briary, and are smartly set off 
with beautiful foliage; its leaves are pinnate, 
and of a fine green colour, and more delicate 
than those of any other rose; its leaflets are 
small, and stand along the midrib in the manner 
of those of the burnet ; its flowers come out in 
great profusion over the whole length of the 
stems or branches, and are small and of a white 
and red colour and almost like the flowers of 
briars, and bloom in June and July ; and its 
fruit or heps have the appearance of black-ber- 
ries, and are highly ornamental in autumn and 
winter. Numerous varieties are cultivated in 
gardens, and look exceedingly pretty in clumps 
or on a bank, but are not adapted to be grown 
as standards.—F our indigenous species, and two 
admired horticultural exotic species, belong to the 
Scotch-rose or pimpinella-leaved subgenus,—the 
reddish rose, #. rubella, inhabiting the sea-shores 
of some parts of England, carrying pink flowers 
in June and July, and including a black-fruited 
variety,—the eglantine, 2. eglanteria, commonly 
about 4 feet high, carrying yellow flowers in 
May and June, and including one or two wild 
varieties,—Sabine’s rose, A. Sab¢ni, inhabiting 
the woods of various parts of Britain, attaining 
an average height of about 8 feet, and carrying 
