Rose with roundish seed-buds, small-flowered, flesh-coloured, and
of a deep red in the centre. The leaflets are ovate, sharp-pointed,
and small; downy beneath, with small sawed glandular margins. The
stem and petioles are prickly: the prickles of the branches are
scattered, and straight.
* * * * *
This elegant minor variety of the Dwarf Rose has been, and still
continues to be, regarded as superior to most, equal to any, and
surpassed by no one, of this enchanting genus at present known. It is an
evident variety of the Rose de Meaux, an equally beautiful Rose, but
whose flowers are larger, and deficient in the fine deep red eye;--the
principal specific distinction, in the present plant, and which is
thought to give it a decided superiority. But whether this distinction
be a permanent character, is certainly at present a matter of doubt; for
in several instances we have seen it lose this central distinction, and
attain the full height of its original. Yet against this observation we
are acquainted with two exceptions: one of them, a plant in the nursery
of Mr. Shailer; the other, a plant in the nursery of Messrs. Loddige;
neither of these plants having for years grown beyond a foot in height,
nor have the proprietors ever been able to propagate them. It is
therefore not improbable, that upon comparing them with the present
figure when in fine bloom, there may be found a sufficient distinction
to enable us to subjoin another figure of it, under the title of
_minima_, or smallest variety.
The drawing was made from a plant at the nursery of Messrs. Whitley and
Brames, Old Brompton.
[Illustration]
ROSA nana, _minor_; _Var. æqualiflora_.
_Small Dwarf Rose; Equal-flowered Variety._