1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Rose

ROSE (Rosa). The rose has for all ages been the favourite flower, and as such it 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. In this place we shall employ the word in its strict botanical significance, and in commenting on it treat it solely from the botanical point of view. The rose gives its name to the order Rosaceae, of which it may be considered the type. The genus consists of species varying in number, according to the diverse opinions of botanists of opposite schools, from thirty to one hundred and eighty, or even two hundred and fifty, exclusive of the many hundreds of mere garden varieties. While the lowest estimate is doubtless too low, the highest is enormously too large, but in any case the wide discrepancies above alluded to illustrate 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 produced in gardens by the art of the hybridizer or the careful selection of the raiser. The species are natives of all parts of the northern hemisphere, but are scantily represented in the tropics unless at considerable elevations.

Dog Rose (Rosa canina) in flower and fruit (half natural size).

The large number of species, subspecies, varieties and forms described as British may be included under about a dozen species. Among them may be mentioned R. spinosissima, the Scotch rose, much less variable than the others; R. rubiginosa (or R. eglanteria), the sweet-brier, represented by several varieties; R. canina, the dog rose (see fig.), including

numerous subspecies and varieties; the large-fruited apple rose, R. pomifera; and R. aniensis, the parent of the Ayrshire roses. Cultivated roses are frequently &ldquo;budded&rdquo; or worked upon the stems of the brier or R. canina, or upon young seedling plants of the same species; and upon stems of an Italian rose called the Manetti, raised in the Milan Botanic Gardens about 1837. Other species, notably R. polyantha, also are used for stocks.

Roses have been grown for so many centuries and have been crossed and recrossed so often that it is difficult to refer the cultivated forms to their wild prototypes. The older roses doubtless originated from R. gallica, a native of central and southern Europe. R. centifolia (the cabbage rose), a native of the Caucasus, contributed its share. A cross between the two species named, may have been the source whence originated the Bourbon roses. The yellow-flowered Austrian and Persian brier originated from R. lutea, a native of Austria and the East. The monthly or China roses sprang from the Chinese R. indica, and these, crossed with others of the R. centifolia or gallica type, are the source of the &ldquo;hybrid perpetuals&rdquo; so commonly grown nowadays, because, in addition to their other attractions, their blooming season is relatively prolonged, and, moreover, is repeated in the autumn. Tea roses and noisettes, it is to be presumed, also acknowledge R. indica as one of their progenitors. A magnificent race called &ldquo;hybrid teas&rdquo; have been evolved of late years, by crossing the tea roses and hybrid perpetuals. They are much more vigorous in constitution than the true tea roses, while quite as beautiful in blossom and more perpetual in bloom than the hybrid perpetuals. Recently, by crossing the Japanese R. Wichuraiana with hybrid perpetuals,

a beautiful and vigorous race of climbers has been produced. The Banksian rose is a Chinese climbing species, with small white or fawn-coloured flowers of great beauty, but rarely seen; the Macartney rose (R. bracteata) is also of Chinese origin. Its nearly evergreen deep green leaves and large white flowers are very striking. The Japanese R. rugosa is also a remarkable species, notable for its bold rugose foliage, its large white or pink flowers, and its conspicuous globular fruit. R. damascena is cultivated in some parts of the Balkans for the purpose of making attar of roses. In Germany the same variety of rose is used, while at Grasse a strain of the Provence rose is cultivated for the same purpose. In India R. damascena is grown largely near Ghazipur for the purpose of procuring attar of roses and rose water.

Rose water is chiefly produced in Europe from the Provence or cabbage rose, R. centifolia, grown for the purpose at Mitcham and much more abundantly in the south of France. Conserve of roses and infusion of roses, two medicinal preparations retained for their agreeable qualities rather than for any special virtue, are prepared from the petals of R. gallica, one variety of which was formerly grown for the purpose near the town of Provins. Conserve of dog rose is made from the ripe hips of the dog rose, R. canina. Its only use is in the manufacture of pills.