ROSE, Rosa, a genus of plants of the natural order rosacem, consisting of shrubs, gen erally with prickly stems and pinnate leaves, the leaves terminating in a single leaflet; stipules at the base of the leaf-stalks; the calyx 5-fid, its tube contracted at the summit, and finally becoming fleshy, and forming •a chief part of the fruit; the corolla of five petals; the stamens numerous; the styles springing from the narrowed throat of the calyx, free, or aggregated into a column. The flowers are generally of the red tint well known as rose-color, but sometimes white, more rarely yellow, and sometimes striped. The fruit (hip or hep) consists of the enlarged and colored tube of the calyx, within which arc contained many achenia (q.v.) amid prickly hairs. The species arc very numerous, even after allowance has been made for a great number of varieties ele vated into species. There is no genus of plants in which the limits of species are more difficult to define, or in which varieties are more apt to be regarded as species. In With ering's British Botany, published near the end of last century, only five British species of rose are given; in Hooker and Arnott's British Flora, 19 species arc recognized, while. many forms, reckoned as species by some botanists, are noticed as mere varieties Roses are natives of all the temperate parts of the northern hemisphere, and of its colder regions, even to Lapland and Hudson's bay. They have long been among the chief favorites in flower-gardens for the beauty and fragrance of their flowers; and, more than ' any other flower, emblems of everything beautiful and delightful. Countless varieties— single and double—have been produced by cultivation, which it is often extremely diffi cult to refer to their original species.—Among the ancients the rose was sacred to Eros ' or Cupid, and Aphrodite or Venus, and was accounted the emblem of joy and love, and at the same time of .prudence. Its opening buds are a favorite poetic image of inno cence and purity.—Among the roses best known to the ancients was the HUNDR•D LEAVED ROSE (I?. centifolia), excelled by no other species in beauty and fragrance. It is a native of the Caucasus, and has been cultivated in gardens from very ancient times. Among its numberless varieties are the Moss Rosa, the calyx of which sends forth branching excrescences, so that it seems overgrown with moss, the flower—which is • only known as it double rose—being exquisitely beautiful and fragrant; the PROVENCE or CABBAGE Rosa, one of the most common, and also one of the finest roses; the small flowered BURGUNDY RosE, etc.—The FRENCII ROSE (R. Gallica) is a native of the s. of Europe. Many varieties of it are cultivated, particularly very beautiful double ones. It is distinguished by its hard leaves, which have a peculiar dryness, and its much expanded petals. It has a fainter smell than R. cent folic, but its petals are more astringent, and are preferred for the preparation of rinegar of roses and C0178C1Te of roses. —The DAMASCUS or DAMASK ROSE (R. liamascena), a native of Syria, is much culti vated, and is sometimes called the MONTHLY ROSE, which name, however, is inure fre quently given to the China rose.—The Music RosE (R. mosehata) is a native of the n. of Africa and the s. of Spain. Its flowers have a strong and delightful fragrance; they are white, and disposed in rich corymbs. It has been cultivated in England since the end of the 16th century.—The Doe Rosa (I?. caning) is common in Britain and throughout Europe, also in the n. of Asia, growing in thickets and hedges. It varies, even in a wild state, in the color of its flowers, which are red, pale, or white. It has long straight shoots, which are often used as stocks for ornamental rose-trees, other kinds of rose being budded upon them. The hark of the root was formerly esteemed of peculiar vir in preventing fatal consequences from the bite of a mad dog; whence the name of species.—The Vir,Lous Rosa (R. rillosa), another common British species, has the fruit larger and more fleshy than the dog rose. The leaves arc downy.—The FIELD ?ROSE (1/. arrensis) is common in ninny parts of Britain, in woods and-hedges. It has ;white flowers. It is remarkable for its trailing habit and long climbing or pendulous on account of which it is frequently planted and trained to cover walls and trel lises. It is often called the AYRSHIRE Rosa, although that name is shared by another
• kind of similar habit, which is regarded as a deciduous variety of the EVERGREEN Rosa a native of the s. of Europe. These often make shoots of 20 ft. in a season. Of the same habit also is the MANY-FLOWERED Rosa (R. multiflora), a native of China and Japan, a very fine species. but not sufficiently hardy for the colder parts of Britain.—Very different in habit is the SCOTCH ROSE. or BURNET-LEAVED ROSE (R. epi nosissinza), a species common on heaths, sands, and chalk downs, in many parts of Brit. afar a low compact hush, with very small leaves and flowers. It is occasionally found is unfertile situations, so dwarfed in size as not to measure more than 3 in. from the very tip of the root to the center of the tower (which is undiminished in size). Many fine double varieties are now in cultivation.—The ALPINE ROSE (It. Alpina) is a beautiful ornament of the Alps and of other mountains of central Europe, remarkable for its flower-stalks bending down in an arch after flowering.—The SWEET BRIER ROSE (It. rubiginosa) is a bushy species, with small leaves and flowers, a native of Britain, but more common in some parts of continental Europe, growing in open bushy places, and remarkable for the sweet balsamic smell of its leaves, on account of which it is much planted in hedges and shrubberies. A kindred species (It. suaccoleas) is found in North America.—The YELLOW ROSE (It. lutea), a native of Germany, is chiefly remarkable for the color of its flowers, which, however, have a disagreeable bug-like odor. A fine variety is much cultivated, with petals yellow externally, and brignt red on the inside. —The INDIAN ROSE, or CHINA ROSE (R. Indira), is a native of China, was thence carried to India, and is now also common in Europe, being a hardy plant which does not suf fer front the frosts of winter in any part of Britain, although it was at first introduced as a green-house plant. It is one of the most important additions recently made to our flower-gardens and shrubberies; flowering not only in the middle of summer, -with the other roses, but throughout the year, even in winter, when the weather is mild. It is now very common throughout Europe. The name MONTHLY ROSE is often given to it from a notion that it flowers every month. The NetsFirm ROSE, remarkable for its extremely rich corymbs, and the TEA ROSE, of which the dried leaves have a fine fragrance, and are said to be used in China for flavoring tea, are regarded as varieties of it. The odor of the flower is much fainter than that of many other roses; and the bush is never large.
Some kinds of rose, as the China rose, are easily propagated by cuttings, the other kinds by layers. The finer varieties are budded on stocks of some common kind. Many of the kinds require much pruning and attention of the gardener. The old shoots are cut out, and the young wood thinned and shortened. Tile flowering of a rose-bush may be retarded by cutting it closely down late in spring, and it will blossom when other roses have disappeared. Roses grow well in all ordinary soils, but are very sensitive to atmospheric influences, and do not succeed amid the smoke of towns.
The genus Iowa has been separated from rosa by Lindley, chiefly on account of the simple leaves. The only known species is a native of central Asia.
The fruit of roses is used in medicine. See HIP. A mildly astringent and agreeable syrup, and other preparations, are made from the rapidly dried petals and buds of the French rose. A syrup is similarly made from the petals of the hinelredleaved rose; and water distilled from them, rose water, is employed for various purpas'es on account of its agreeable odor. Rose vinegar, made by steeping rose petals in vinegar, is useful as an external application in headaches, for dissipating unpleasant smells in apartments, etc. Conserve of roses is made of the petals of roses pounded with sugar, and is useful as an astringent in diarrhea of children. Oil or attar (q.v.) of roses is one of the most valuable of perfumes.
Rose-bushes are often much injured by a species of aphis (A. roar), a small green insect, which swarms upon the leaves. A reddish fungus, puceinia rose-, oft& covers the leaves in the latter part of summer.