Description, &c. This is an exceedingly beautiful and very remarkable kind of rose; the flowers being small, round, and very double, on long peduncles, and resembling in form the flowers of the double French cherry, or that of a small ranunculus, more than those of the generality of roses. The flowers of R. Banksia álba are remarkaly fragrant; the scent strongly resembling that of violets. 77. R. MICROCA'RPA Lindl. The small-fruited Rose. Identification. Lindl. Rosar. Monog., 130, t. 18; Dec. Prod., 2, p. 601. Spec. Char., &c. Prickles scattered, recurved. Leaflets 3-5, lanceolate, shining, the two surfaces different in color. Petioles pilose. Stipules bristle-shaped or awlshaped, scarcely attached to the petiole, deciduous. Flowers disposed in dichotomous corymbs. Peduncles and calyxes glabrous. Styles scarcely protruded higher than the plane of the spreading of the flower. Fruit globose, pea-shaped, scarlet, shining. Allied to R. Banksia. A native of China, in the province of Canton. Flowers very numerous, small, white. A rambling shrub, flowering from May to September. 1, L. BERBERIFO`LIA Lindl. The Berberry-leaved Lowea. Identification. Lindley in Bot. Reg., t. 1261. Synonymes. Rosa simplicifolia Sal. Hort. Allert., 359, Parad. Lond., t. 101, Olivier's Voyage, 5, 49, atl. t. 43; R. berberifolia Pall. in Nov. Act. Petr., 10, 379, t. 10, f. 5, Willd. Sp., 2, p. 1063, Ait. Hort. Kew., ed. 2, 3, p. 258, Smith in Rees' Cyclopædia, Redouté Ros., 1, 27, t. 2, Lindl. Rosarum Monog., p. 1, French edition, p. 23, Dec. Prod., 2, p. 602, Spreng. Syst., 2, p. 546, Wallroth Monog., p. 25. Spec. Char., &c. Leaves undivided, without stipules, obovate-cuneate, serrated at the tip. Prickles decurrent, and of the color of ivory. Sepals entire, subspathulate. Petals yellow, marked with purple at the base. An undershrub, a native of Persia, near Amadan, where it abounds in saltish soil; and also in fields at the bottom of Mount Elwend, and in the Desert of Soongaria. It grows to the height of 2 ft., and flowers in June and July. It is said to be so common in Persia, that, according to Michaux, who first brought it into France, it is used for heating ovens. We have classed this singular plant with the Rose, although Dr. Lindley makes it a separate genus, under the name of Lowea, and with very correct reasoning. There are, however, many who have been accustomed to consider it a Rose, and would be disappointed in not finding it here, and we therefore give it the old classification. Description, &c. The plant of this species in the garden of the London Horticultural Society is an undershrub, with recumbent, slender, and rather intricate branches, and whitish leaves. It rarely flowers; and, in regard to its propagation and culture, Dr. Lindley, in the Bot. Reg. for August, 1829, remarks that no more appears to be now known of it, than was at the period of its first introduction in 1790." It resists cultivation in a remarkable manner, submitting permanently neither to budding nor grafting, nor layering, nor striking from cuttings, nor, in short, to any of those operations, one or other of which succeeds with other plants. Drought does not suit it; it does not thrive in wet; heat has no beneficial effect, cold no prejudicial influence; care does not improve it, neglect does not injure it. Of all the numerous seedlings raised by the Horticultural Society from seeds sent home by Sir Henry Wilcock, and distributed, scarcely a plant remains alive. Two are still growing in a peat border in the Chiswick Garden, but they are languishing and unhealthy; and we confess that observation of them, in a living state, for nearly four years, has not suggested a single method of improving the cultivation of the species." These plants still remain without increase; but young plants may be obtained in some or the nurseries, which have been raised from seeds; and at Vienna, as we are informed by Mr. Charles Rauch, it succeeds perfectly by budding on the common dog rose. Thunberg speaks of the Rosa rugosa, as growing in China and Japan, being extensively cultivated in the gardens of those coun tries, and producing flowers of a pale red or pure white. The original plant is of a deep purple color. Siebold, in his treatise on the flowers of Japan, says that this rose had been already cultivated in China about eleven hundred years, and that the ladies of the Court, under the dynasty of Long, prepared a very choice pot-pourri by mixing its petals with musk and camphor. More than one hundred distinct varieties are mentioned by botanists, in addition to those we have enumerated, but none of very marked characters or much known. HE varieties of a plant are, by Botanists, designated by names intended to convey an idea of certain characteristics, the form and consistency of the leaves-the arrangement, number, size, and color of the flowers, seed-vessels, &c. The varieties of roses, however, have so few distinct characteristics, that amateurs find it difficult to give any name expressive of the very slight shades of difference in the color or form of the flower. Fanciful names have therefore been chosen, indiscriminately, according to the taste of the grower; and we thus find classed, in brotherly nearness, Napoleon and Wellington, Queen Victoria and Louis Philippe, Othello and Wilberforce, with many others. Any half-dozen English or French rose growers may give the name of their favorite Wellington or Napoleon to a rose raised by each of them, and entirely different in form and color from the other five bearing the same name. Thus has arisen the great confusion in rose nomenclature. A still greater difficulty and confusion, however, exists in the classification adopted by the various English and French rose growers. By these, classes are multiplied and roses placed in them without sufficient attention to their distinctive characters; these are subsequently changed to other classes, to the utter confusion of those who are really desirous of attaining some knowledge of the respective varieties. Even Rivers, the most correct of them all, has in several catalogues the same rose in as many different classes, and his book may perhaps place it in another. He thus comments upon this constant change: "Within the last ten years, how many plants have been named and unnamed, classed and re-classed!--Professor A. placing it here, and Dr. B. placing it there! I can almost imagine Dame Nature laughing in her sleeve, when our philosophers are thus puzzled. Well, so it is, in a measure, with roses a variety has often equal claims to two classes. First impressions have perhaps placed it in one, and there rival amateurs should let it remain." If there exists, then, this doubt of the proper class to which many roses belong, we think it would be better to drop entirely this sub-classification, and adopt some more general heads, under one of which every rose can be classed. It may often be difficult to ascertain whether a rose is a Damask, a Provence, or a Hybrid China; but there can be no difficulty in ascertaining whether it is dwarf or climbing, whether it blooms once or more in the year, and whether the leaves are rough as in the Remontants, or smooth as in the Bengals. We have therefore endeavored to simplify the old classification, and have placed all roses under three principal heads, viz.: I. Those that make distinct and separate periods of bloom throughout the season, as the Remontant Roses. II. Those that bloom continually, without any temporary cessation, as the Bourbon, China, &c. III. Those that bloom only once in the season, as the French and others. The first of these includes only the present Damask and Hybrid Perpetuals, and for these we know no term so expressive as the French REMONTANT. Perpetual does not express their true character. The second general head we call EVERBLOOMING. This is divided into five classes: 1. The BOURBON which are easily known by their luxuriant growth and thick, large, leathery leaves. These are, moreover, perfectly hardy. |