ROSE, with egg-shaped seed-buds; empalements and peduncles mossy;
petioles and younger branches hispid, and glandulously viscous;
spines of the branches numerous, and straight.
The origin of this beautiful Rose, has ever been considered as enveloped
in obscurity; but we have no hesitation in assigning it to the Province,
to which it assimilates in every particular,--with the addition of a
rich luxuriant moss, that gives it a decided superiority, and at the
same time a specific distinction. In proof of our opinion, we have
recently seen both the Moss and Province Rose at one time, in high
perfection, on the same plant; and to remove all doubt, the plant was
dug up, to show that it was but one individual root. We have since seen
three more plants of the same description. Two of them had been
propagated by layers from the mossy shoots. The major part of them
returned to their origin, the Province. In the examination of a number
of Moss Roses, we have perceived a considerable difference in the
quantity of moss attached to them,--in many instances so slight, as
evidently to proclaim their original. There can be little if any doubt,
that this beautiful variety is the spontaneous effusion of Nature in
this country, of which we shall ever regard it as indigenous, since we
have never heard of any importations of this species, but of frequent
exportations. The most luxuriant specimens of this plant are the dwarf
growth in the open ground, from which our figure was taken.
[Illustration]
ROSA muscosa, _alba_.
_White Moss Rose._