Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XIV.djvu/454

 434: HOSE otic species are more or less naturalized ; the best known is the sweethrier (B. rubiginosa), which is here used to illustrate the structure of the genus. It is about 6 ft. high, but may be trained much higher ; its stems have strong, hooked prickles, with some smaller awl-shaped Sweetbrier Rose (Section of Flower and the Fruit). ones ; the doubly serrate leaflets have the un- der surface downy and clothed with russet glands, which, especially when bruised, give off a characteristic and pleasant -fragrance; the small pink flowers are mostly solitary, with a pear-shaped hip. This is sometimes called eglantine, a name which was formerly applied to roses in general. The dog rose (Ji. canina) of Europe, which occurs in some parts of Pennsylvania, is the common brier of Eng- land, and is found throughout Europe and Russian Asia ; it is close to the sweetbrier, but has no aromatic glands ; in England this is largely used aa a stock upon which to bud the finer kinds of roses. The most important in- troduced species is the Cherokee rose, which Michaux, regarding it as indigenous, described as R. Icetigata, but it is now certain that it is a Chinese species (R. Sinica), introduced into Georgia and South Carolina before the revo- lution ; it has every appearance of a foreign species, and is found in China, where it is the common wild rose ; it is a vigorous climber, reaching the tops of tall trees, and hanging in shoots and festoons 20 to 40 ft. long ; the otherwise smooth stems have strong, sharp, curved prickles, and its leaves, usually of only three leaflets, glossy and evergreen ; the flow- ers, which appear in the greatest profusion in early spring, are large, single, and of a peculiarly clear and pure white. This has proved to be one of the most valuable of all hedge plants for the southern states; hedges made over 50 years ago are still in full vigor. Cuttings are set in the hedge row, 3 ft. apart ; the growth of the first year is the next winter cut back to within a foot of the ground ; after this the long and vigorous shoots are allowed to grow and are directed on the line of the hedge, where they pile up and interlace to form an impenetrable barrier. Cultivators near Bos- ton have found the Cherokee rose admirable for the greenhouse, the great abundance of the flowers and their purity compensating for their singleness. Another Chinese rose used in the southern states for hedges, and some- what naturalized, is the Macartney rose (R. bracteata), introduced into England by Lord Macartney in 1795 ; it is barely hardy in Eng- land, but in the southernmost states is ever- green, and differs from the foregoing in hav- ing the stems downy as well as prickly, and its calyx covered by leafy bracts ; in low rich soils it is preferred as a hedge plant to the Chero- kee. The foregoing wild or naturalized roses are botanical species in their normal form, with single flowers ; the roses of our gardens and greenhouses are for the most part varie- ties obtained by selection and by hybridizing and crossing, and this has been continued so long that often all traces of their original parentage are concealed. Bud variation is re- markably frequent in the rose ; a bud will often produce a shoot upon which the flowers, and even the leaves, are in form and color unlike those upon the rest of the plant ; these bud variations may be propagated by cuttings or by budding, and several of our well known kinds were thus obtained. The most prized garden roses are double ; i. ., instead of the five petals of the wild flower, these are multi- plied indefinitely ; some roses are so double that no stamens can be seen, while others are only partly double; the doubling is due (in good part, at least) to the conversion of sta- mens into petals (see PLANT) ; any partly dou- ble rose will show the gradual metamorphosis from the proper stamen through intermediate states to the fully developed petal, as indicated Transformation of Stamens into Petals. in the accompanying diagram. In the enume- ration of cultivated roses, a garden rather than a strictly botanical classification is most con- venient. 1. Climbing Hoses. The prairie rose (R. setigera) has been mentioned as a native species ; from this Samuel Feast of Baltimore and others have obtained our most valuable climbers, hardy from Canada to the gulf, and producing a great profusion of showy though scentless flowers; they are evidently crossed with foreign kinds; the Queen of the Prai- ries is the best known of these, and will grow in any soil ; another is the Baltimore Belle ; and there are several others of the prairie group with flowers from white to deep rose. The evergreen rose (R. sempercirent) has given