John Holland Rose

ROSE, JOHN HOLLAND (1855— ), English historian, was born at Bedford, and educated at Owens college, Manchester. In 1911 he was appointed reader in modern history, and in 1919 Vere-Harmsworth professor of naval history, at Cambridge uni versity. His researches were directed to the French revolutionary and Napoleonic era on which he became a recognized authority.

His numerous historical works include The Life of Napoleon I. The Development of the European Nations, 1870-1900 ( William Pitt and the Great War 0910; The Person ality of Napoleon (1912) ; The Origin of the War (1914); Nationality as a Factor in Modern History (1916) and many articles and papers.

ROSE

(Rosa). The rose has for all ages been the favourite flower, and has a place in general literature that no other plant can rival. In most cases the rose of the poets and the rose of the botanist are one and the same in kind, but popular usage has attached the name rose to a variety of plants whose kinship to the true plant no botanist would for a moment admit. The rose gives its name to the family Rosaceae, of which it may be con sidered the type. The genus consists of species varying in num ber, according to the diverse opinions of botanists, from 3o to 18o, or even 25o, exclusive of the many hundreds of mere garden varieties. The wide discrepancy above alluded to illustrates very forcibly the extreme variability of the plants, their adaptability to various conditions, and consequently their wide dispersion over the globe, the facility with which they are cultivated, and the readiness with which new varieties are continually being pro duced in gardens by the art of the hybridizer or by careful selection. The species are natives of all parts of the Northern Hemisphere but, except at considerable elevations, are scantily represented in the Tropics.

They are erect or climbing shrubs, never herbs or trees, gen erally more or less copiously provided with straight or hooked prickles of various shapes and with glandular hairs, as in the sweet-brier or in the moss-rose of gardens. The leaves are in variably alternate, provided with stipules, and unequally pinnate, the leaflets varying in number from r to I I and even 15, the odd leaflet always being at the apex, the others in pairs. The

flowers are solitary or in loose cymes (cluster-roses) produced on the ends of the shoots. The flower-stalk expands into a vase or urn-shaped dilatation, called the receptacle or receptacular tube, which ultimately becomes fleshy and encloses in its cavity the numerous carpels or fruits. From the edge of the urn or "hip" proceed five sepals, often more or less compound like the leaves and overlapping in the bud. Within the sepals are five petals, generally broad or roundish in outline, with a very short stalk or none at all, and of very various shades of white, yellow or red. The very numerous stamens originate slightly above the sepals and petals ; each has a slender filament and a small two celled anther. The carpels are very numerous, ultimately hard in texture, covered with hairs, and each provided with a long style and button-like stigma. The carpels are concealed within the receptacular tube and only the stigmas as a rule protrude from its mouth. Each carpel contains one ovule.

The so-called fruit is merely the receptacular tube, which, as previously mentioned, becomes fleshy and brightly coloured as an attraction to birds, which devour the hips and thus secure the dispersion of the seed. The stamens are in whorls, and, according to Payer, they originate in pairs one on each side of the base of each petal so that there are ten in each row; a second row of ten alternates with the first, a third with the second, and so on. By repeated radial and tangential branching a vast number of stamens are ultimately produced, and when these stamens assume a petaloid aspect we have as a consequence the double flowers which are so much admired. Under natural circum stances rose flowers do not secrete honey, the attraction for insects being provided by the colour and perfume and the abun dance of pollen for food. The stigmas and anthers come to maturity at the same time, and thus, while cross-fertilization by insect agency is doubtless most common, self-fertilization is not prevented.