Welsh: Ciros; Egroeswydd. Gaelic: An fhearr-dhris. E.) Hedges and woods; frequent in most parts of Britain. S. June. (R. SYSTYLA. Fruit ovate-oblong, smooth: flower-stalks glandular: calyx pinnate, deciduous: prickles hooked: leafits simply serrated floral receptacle conical: styles combined, smooth. Sm. E. Bot. 1895. This plant has the general habit and appearance of R. canina, but with flowers more numerous in each cluster; and (what perhaps affords a more essential distinction) styles united into a long smooth column. LONG-STYLED ROSE. R. systyla. Woods. Tr. Linn. Soc. vol. xii. Lindl. Sm. Hook. R. collina. E. Bot. In hedges and thickets. Common in Sussex. Mr. Borrer. At Walthamstow, Quendon, and Clapton, near A perfumed water may be distilled from the blossoms: (said to be infinitely more fragrant than common rose-water, and thus eulogized by Haller, "Fragrantia ejus olei omnia alia odoramenta superat, ut inter regiadona sit." "As swete as is the Bramble floure That bereth the red hepe." Chaucer. An esteemed drink made from the leaves and twigs is used in Tartary and Siberia, where likewise the plant is known by a name signifying Dog-fruit. The flowers yield a spirit, and are preserved with honey and sugar by the inhabitants of the Volga. E.) The pulp of the berries, beat up with sugar, makes the conserve of heps of the London Dispensatory. Mixed with wine it is an acceptable treat in the north of Europe. (In preparing the pulp from the heps much care should be taken to separate the rough prickly matter inclosing the seed, a neglect of which precaution has sometimes occasioned vomiting and other alarming symptoms. As the conserve is merely used to give form to other articles, the Edinburgh College have omitted it.) Though fieldfares and thrushes, when and where available, prefer feeding on insects and worms, (vid. Zoolog. Mag. vol. i.) yet they do, as every sportsman knows, freely devour the fruit both of the White Thorn and the Wild Rose. The value of the fruit of the Wild Briar as winter food for the songsters of the grove is thus prettily described by the poet : "The woods are stripped with the wintry winds, "Tis the ruby fruit of the Wild-briar tree. The strong have bowed down, the beauteous are dead; And bared is full many a lofty head; But there's fruit on the lowly Wild-briar tree. By the simple, faithful, Wild-briar tree." E.) The leaves of every species of Rose, but especially of this, are recommended in the Eph. Nat. Curios. as a substitute for tea, giving out a fiue colour, a sub-astringent taste, and a grateful smell, when dried and infused in boiling water. (On the strong shoots of this species garden Roses are now grafted, and thus are trained tall stems throwing out heads of considerable size, which, when clustered with varied blossoms, are highly ornamental, especially on grass lawns. By the Greeks Wild Roses were called: xvvopolov, because the root was thought to cure the bite of a mad dog; and hence the Latin canina, our Dog Rose; whose arching branches and lively odorous flowers, where Blushing, the uncultur'd Rose Hangs high her beauteous blossoms," (intermediate in floral succession between the Hawthorn of Spring and the Honeysuckle of Autumn,) decorate our hedge rows through the prime of Summer. E.) London. Mr. E. Forster. At Donnington Castle, Berkshire. Mr. Bicheno. Near Penshurst, Kent. Mr. Woods. Hills, Ridrie, and hills north of Milngaire, Scotland. Mr. Hopkirk. P. June. E.) (R. DUMETO'RUM. Fruit elliptical, smooth, as tall as the bracteas : flower-stalks aggregate, slightly hairy: calyx copiously pinnate, somewhat cut prickles numerously scattered, hooked: leafits simply serrated, hairy on both sides. Four to six feet high, with many weak spreading branches. Petals reddish. Styles prominent, a little hairy. Fruit red, ovate. Sm. Calyx long, permanent on the fruit: no doubt can exist of its being distinct from every other British species. Like R. canina, it frequently throws out strong leading shoots, which soon overtop the bunches of flowers. Winch.* THICKET ROSE. R. dumetorum. Woods. Sm. Winch. So nearly resembling R. Borreri, of Woods, which is R. dumetorum, E. Bot. 2579, that Hooker and others unite them under R. rubiginosa; the var. inodora of which (Lindl. p. 88.) is represented in Fl. Lond. 117. In hedges in the southern counties. In Heaton Wood, near Newcastle on Tyne; and hedges near Sandyford, Northumberland. Mr. Winch. J. June. E.) (R. GLAUCOPHYLLA. Calyx permanent: fruit egg-shaped, smooth: leafits egg-shaped, doubly serrated, glaucous: prickles hooked. This is a much slenderer, though less trailing briar than R. camina; its flowers are pale pink, growing in pairs or single, and its fruit large. It also further differs in habit, by not having young shoots sprouting beyond the blossoms, so as to give them the appearance of being axillary: and from R. sentriosa of Acharius, (Stockh. Tr.) in the fruit being ovate; not globular. It also resembles R. cæsia, E. Bot. 2367, in many points, but differs in having smooth, not downy leaves; glaucous especially in spring. It may probably have been oten overlooked as a variety of R. canina. Winch. DOUBLY-SERRATED DOG ROSE. R. glaucophylla. Winch. Geog. Distr. Ed. 1. With. Ed. 6. R. sarmentacea. Woods. Tr. Linn. Soc. v. xii. Swartz. M.S. Winch. Geog. Distr. Ed. 2. With. Ed. 6. In every hedge near Newcastle, Northumberland. About Keswick, frequent. Mr. Winch. E.) (R. CE'SIA. Fruit roundish-ovate, smooth: prickles of the stem hooked: leafits egg-shaped, pointed, doubly serrated, downy: very glaucous, as well as the germen and young branches. E. Bot. 2367. Flowers most frequently solitary, sometimes in pairs. Fruit varies from oblong to nearly globose. It differs from R. canina in its downy leaves, and their very glaucous hue. E. Bot. Hooker has included it under that species; as also R. dumetorum of Woods, (not of E. Bot.) GLAUCOUS-LEAVED ROSE. R. casia. Sm. Woods. R. canina pubescens. Afzel. Ann. Bot. vol. ii. Found by Mr. W. Borrer, in the Highland valleys of Perthshire and Argyleshire. By the side of Loch Tay. Mr. G. Anderson. S. July. E.) (Vide a very discriminating essay on this genus, by Nat. John Winch, Esq. in the Monthly Mag. May, 1816. E.) (Though in general the Botanist may be expected to devote his chief attention to the unsophisticated productions of nature, it were unreasonably fastidious not to concede a single note of admiration to the triumph of floriculture. The most splendid and compre (R. cinnamomea, E. Bot. 2388, supposed to have been once discovered near Aketon pasture, Pontefract, is no longer found there, or elsewhere in hensive work on Roses in general, is probably that of M. Redoutè, published at Paris in three volumes folio, and containing eight hundred kinds. About half that number are cultivated in our English nursery grounds: those of France, according to M. Desportes, boast no less than 2,533 named varieties. By proper management, a regular succession of flowering Roses, exhibiting an endless diversity of colours; red, yellow, white, and even what is termed, though not very correctly, blue, may be continued from May till October, or, in favourable seasons, till near Christmas. Then indeed, with regret, do we behold their fragrant petals scattered beneath our feet; but even then we may deduce the moral inference, "The Rose of the summer is gone, The fairest and loveliest one, Of mortals an emblem how true!" As does garden culture convert a desert or a wilderness into a blooming Eden, so will education improve the human mind: but it is wise ever to recollect that man in his most perfect state cannot escape the inevitable doom; for "all flesh is grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of the field; the grass withereth, and the flower fadeth away :" but wisdom, virtue, and the blessings of Christianity never fade, and are never exhausted; they are the eternal fountains of joy, whose waters shall refresh when every other source is dried up. When gathered, the flowers may be agreeably displayed, and long preserved, in shallow, ornamented pans, composed of tin or china, the lids being pierced to admit the flower-stalks. Both white and red Roses are used in medicine. The former distilled with water yields a small portion of butyraceous oil, whose flavour exactly resembles that of the roses themselves. The oil and the distilled water are very useful and agreeable cordials. These roses also, besides the cordial and aromatic virtues which reside in their volatile parts, have an aperient effect, which remains in the decoction after distillation. The red Rose on the contrary, has an astringent and gratefully corroborant virtue. The leaves of Roses of all kinds, (especially those of R. canina,) dried and infused in water, are recommended in Ephem. Nat. Cur. as a substitute for tea, "giving a most pleasant greenness, and in the subastringent taste and grateful smell being equal or superior to tea, and more wholesome." That such an infusion may be less deleterious we can readily imagine; for, though the effect of our foreign tea may be for a while palatable and exbilirating, debilitating and enervating consequences (from which few constitutions are entirely exempt,) will ultimately prevail. Since its general adoption as our daily beverage, nervous disorders have been obviously on the increase; superseding, indeed, in a degree, (as experienced physicians will not deny,) the more natural phlogistic diathesis of the British temperament, but followed by yet more distressing, and too often, irremediable, symptoms. Various native herbs have been suggested, at different periods, and by the most enlightened of the medical faculty, as desirable substitutes for the Chinese leaf; but so imperious is fashion, and so prone are her votaries to patronize exotic productions alone, that the fatal abuse seems likely to decline only with the ruined health, and abridged existence, it occasions. For some conclusive experiments on this subject, vid. Percival's Essays. Rose leaves constitute a principal ingredient in the Pot-pourri. But the most delicious perfume to be obtained from Roses is in the form of an essential oil, commonly denominated Otter, but according to more correct orthography Attar, or Atar. It is said to be obtained by the following simple process. Fill any large vessel with the picked petals of Roses; cover them with spring water; expose them to the sun daily for a week; oily particles will rise to the surface, and gradually form a pellicle, which is the Attar, and should be removed by a piece of cotton, and closely corked in small phials. A perfumer in Paris, who made this costly preparation for Louis XVI., declares that four thousand pounds weight of the leaves yielded only seventeen ounces of the oil. Probably in an Asiatic climate the product might be somewhat less scanty. Rose-water was formerly in more general use among the rich and great than in our age, and on state occasions was usually presented in silvergilt ewers : Among the charges in the account of a dinner of Lord Leycester, Chancellor of the University of Oxford, Sept. 5, 1570, is the item, “Rose-water to wash afore dinnere, and Britain; unless indeed, flore pleno, at the bottom of a peat bog on Bullington Green, near Oxford, as reported by Mr. Baxter, in Purt. Mid. Fl. E.) after dinnere." In Damascus hogsheads of this refreshing luxury are sold daily for purposes of cookery. The custom of adorning the memorials of the dead with flowers, the symbols of fleeting mortality; especially with the Rose, as equally the token of affection, (vestiges of which may still be traced in Wales, and some parts of England), prevailed both with the Greeks and Romans: in allusion to which thus Anacreon, and Propertius:— "Preserves the cold, inurned clay, "Et tenerâ poneret ossa Rosa." We learn from Camden that this practice was in bis day observed, and has been time out of mind, at Oakley, in Surry, where "the Rose tree is planted on the graves, especially of young men and maidens who have lost their lovers, so that this churchyard is full of them." In the less frequented parts of the principality, the more general recurrence of these pious offerings is calculated to produce an affecting impression even on the passing stranger; but still more strongly to cherish a tender regret for the departed among near and dear relatives, by whom these sacred depositories are annually, if not oftener, visited. Indeed the Rose derives its chief interest from its connection with history and sentiment, and that again originating in its own peculiar charms. In all countries where it is known, and in every age, a redundancy of poetry and song justly attest its pre-eminence; nor is it less distinguished in fable. It has been pronounced by universal acclamation the Queen of Flowers :— "Rose! thou art the sweetest flower Even the gods, who walk the sky, The Persian Hafez maintains this supremacy among the Oriental gifts of Flora : "When the young Rose in crimson gay Expands her beauties to the day, And foliage fresh her leafless boughs o'erspread; In homage to her sov'reign pow'r, Bright regent of each subject flow'r! Low at her feet the violet bends its head." The ceremonial of Blessing the Rose is still preserved at Rome, and the day is named "Dominica in Rosâ." Nor were formerly less distinguished honours bestowed upon it in France, at the festival called "Baillee de Rose," when great quantities of Roses were scattered abroad. Englishmen exalt the Rose as their national flower, for ever happily blended with the Thistle and the Shamrock : "Emblem of England hail! thou fairest flower, Never again may it be debased as the badge of intestine feuds; that contest alone of which it was the emblem, having cost more of English blood than did the twice conquer. ing France: till rept the crown from vanquish'd Henry's head, Rais'd the White Rose, and trampled on the Red." Waller. The Union Rose, a very elegant variety, with mixed red and white petals, has been generally referred to the marriage of Henry VII. with Elizabeth, daughter of Edward IV; by which the animosity of the contending houses was happily and finally extinguished. In connection with this branch of the subject, we find in an old author the following effusion of gallantry on presenting a White Rose to a Lancastrian lady : RU'BUS.* Cal. five-cleft: Petals five: Styles from the top of the germen: Drupa clustered, one-celled, fixed to a conical receptacle so as to resemble a berry. "If this fair Rose offend thy sight, It in thy bosom wear; "Twill blush to find itself less white, And turn Lancastrian there." Mythologists tell us that the Rose was originally white, and that the warmer colour was first given to it by the blood of Venus, from an accident thus described by Catullus:"While the enamour'd queen of joy Flies to protect her lovely boy, On whom the jealous war god rushes; She treads upon a thorned Rose, And while the wound with crimson flows, The snowy flow'ret feels her blood, and blushes." As a token flower, the Rose has ever been deemed sacred to secrecy : hence to speak "under the Rose," refers, (according to the definition of Brown in his Vulg. Err.) in society and compotation, to the ancient custom in symposiack meetings, of wearing chaplets of Roses about the head. Mythological writers afford us the following additional solution :— "That the god of love made Harpocrates, the god of silence, a present of the first Rose, to bribe him not to divulge the secrets of his mother Venus." Hence the Rose became a symbol of silence, and was usually placed above the heads of the guests in banqueting rooms, in order to banish restraint, and intimate that nothing would be divulged that was said "sub Rosa:" "Under the Rose' in days of old, Fond vows were seal'd, fond secrets told; And whisper in its amorous mood Are sacred uuderneath the Rose. For sacred still shall love repose Under that faithful flower-the Rose." In Europe the Rose chiefly discloses its odoriferous treasures beneath the unclouded sky; to which the classic strains of Casimir happily allude: "Siderum sacros imitata vultus, Quid lates dudum, Rosa? Delicatum Effer e terris caput, O tepentis Filia cœli. Jam tibi nubes fugiunt aquosæ, Quas fugant albis Zephyri quadrigis; Aura Favoni." "Child of the Summer, charming Rose, No longer in confinement lie; Arise to light; thy form disclose; Rival the spangles of the sky. (Rubu or ruber, Latin, rub, Celtic, red, from the colour of the fruit, and other parts. E.) |
