Part 20

ROSA glabra.

Smooth Rose.

CHARACTER SPECIFICUS.

Rosa germinibus ovatis: pedunculis et petiolis hispidis: floribus multipetalis, equalibus: foliis glabris: foliolis oblongis, acuminatis, serratis: caule glabro, sub-inermi.

SPECIFIC CHARACTER.

Rose with egg-shaped seed-buds: peduncles and footstalks hispid: flowers with many petals and equal: leaves smooth: leaflets oblong, pointed, and sawed: stem smooth, nearly without thorns.

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This Rose was introduced to this country from Holland about the year 1802. The only title we have heard given to it by cultivators is Double Thornless White Rose,--an appellation certainly not very descriptive of the plant; for, although it is thornless on the upper part, yet at the base of the stem it is thorny. The flowers are sometimes white, but we have oftener seen them tinged with a pale pinky colour. In size and shape they are like the Burgundy Rose, and in the foliage they resemble the Rosa moschata, but are very distinct from either, and altogether very different from any species with which we are at present acquainted. It is slow of increase, as are all the distinctly new Roses we have hitherto met with, which probably is (for a time) a genuine trait of their originality. Our figure is from a plant in the nursery of Messrs. Whitley and Brames, in the month of June 1808.

ROSA lurida.

Lurid Rose.

CHARACTER SPECIFICUS.

Rosa paniculis multifloris: germinibus globosis: foliis patentibus: foliolis sub-glaucis, ovato-acuminatis, serratis: caule glabro purpureo, pulvere violaceo tecto: aculeis paucis et recurvis.

SPECIFIC CHARACTER.

Rose with many-flowered panicles: seed-buds globular: leaves spreading: leaflets nearly glaucous, ovate-pointed, and sawed: stem smooth and purple, covered with a violet-coloured powder: prickles few and recurved.

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This elegant Rose is said to be a native of Switzerland, and sent from thence by Dr. Messear, about the year 1803, to the gardens of Isaac Swainson, esq. at Twickenham; whence our figure was taken. It is not, we believe, at present in any other collection in this kingdom. It has so perfect an air of novelty, that amongst the numerous Roses daily ycleped new, this is one of the very very few to which a separate and distinct character may justly be applied. Flowers during the months of June and July, is of rapid growth, and forms a tall and bushy shrub.