Part 1

ROSES:

A MONOGRAPH

THE GENUS ROSA:

CONTAINING

COLOURED FIGURES

ALL THE KNOWN SPECIES AND BEAUTIFUL VARIETIES

DRAWN, ENGRAVED, DESCRIBED, AND COLOURED,

from the Living Plants.

By H. C. ANDREWS, AUTHOR OF THE BOTANIST’S REPOSITORY, COLOURED ENGRAVINGS OF HEATHS, ETC.

Hail, lovely ROSE, of flowers the blushing queen! Burst, burst, ye numerous Nondescripts, with spleen! Ye wondrous Nothings, from a foreign soil Brought with such labour, care, and anxious toil,-- Say, can your utmost charms, combined, disclose Beauty and fragrance equal to the ROSE?

London: PRINTED BY R. TAYLOR AND CO., 38, SHOE LANE; AND PUBLISHED BY THE AUTHOR, 5, KNIGHTSBRIDGE.

INTRODUCTION.

The Rose, for matchless beauty famed, (although by botanists so disregarded) has been the Painter’s study and the Poet’s theme, for ages past, and will no doubt for ages yet to come; long after many a curious Nondescript shall in a dusty hortus siccus sleep, unnoticed and unknown.

The intention of the author in the delineation of this unrivalled tribe, is to arrange as accurately as possible the numerous beautiful varieties, with their species--an arduous task, considering the neglect they have experienced, and the wild and indiscriminate manner in which they have been profusely mixed. This, aided by an heterogeneous mode of culture, has produced many varieties, the lineal descent of which is very difficult to ascertain.

The extent of the genus has been most vaguely estimated; by some enumerated at two hundred and forty; an estimate that must certainly include many very slight varieties, which, if allowed, might swell the genus to ten times its real extent. But we think a rational computation would confine them within a hundred, including every distinct variety. The author’s intention is to figure only those to which a separate character can be affixed, regarding a superfluous repetition, even of beauty, inadmissible. As the merits of the present undertaking may easily be appreciated by a free access to all its beautiful originals, the author hopes a candid allowance will be made, upon a comparison with the living plant, when it is considered that the most elaborate efforts of art have never yet been able to do justice to its superior beauty.

ROSA muscosa, Provincialis.

Moss Province Rose.

CHARACTER SPECIFICUS.

ROSA, germinibus ovatis; calycibus et pedunculis muscosis; petiolis ramulisque hispidis et glanduloso-viscosis; spinis ramorum numerosis, rectis.

SPECIFIC CHARACTER.

ROSE, with egg-shaped seed-buds; empalements and peduncles mossy; petioles and younger branches hispid, and glandulously viscous; spines of the branches numerous, and straight.

The origin of this beautiful Rose, has ever been considered as enveloped in obscurity; but we have no hesitation in assigning it to the Province, to which it assimilates in every particular,--with the addition of a rich luxuriant moss, that gives it a decided superiority, and at the same time a specific distinction. In proof of our opinion, we have recently seen both the Moss and Province Rose at one time, in high perfection, on the same plant; and to remove all doubt, the plant was dug up, to show that it was but one individual root. We have since seen three more plants of the same description. Two of them had been propagated by layers from the mossy shoots. The major part of them returned to their origin, the Province. In the examination of a number of Moss Roses, we have perceived a considerable difference in the quantity of moss attached to them,--in many instances so slight, as evidently to proclaim their original. There can be little if any doubt, that this beautiful variety is the spontaneous effusion of Nature in this country, of which we shall ever regard it as indigenous, since we have never heard of any importations of this species, but of frequent exportations. The most luxuriant specimens of this plant are the dwarf growth in the open ground, from which our figure was taken.

ROSA muscosa, alba.

White Moss Rose.

CHARACTER SPECIFICUS.

ROSA, germinibus ovatis; calycibus, pedunculis, et petiolis glanduloso-viscosis; foliolis ovatis, subtus villosis, ad margines glandulis viscosis; spinis ramorum numerosis, rectis.

SPECIFIC CHARACTER.

ROSE, with egg-shaped seed-buds; empalement, peduncles, and petioles, glandulously viscous; leaflets of an oval shape, villose beneath, with small viscous glands on their edges; spines of the branches numerous, and straight.