SPECIFIC CHARACTER.
Rose, with many-flowered panicles, scented like musk; seed-bud egg-shaped; peduncles villose; petioles prickly; the leaflets are oblong, acuminated, and smooth; the spines of the branches are large, scattered, and straight.
As a perfectly distinct species, the present figure is well deserving of notice. Its flowers are numerous, of a soft creamy white, and which are supposed to emit an odour resembling the perfume called musk. A specific name thus derived, we should not hold in much estimation were the plant ever so deficient in descriptive character; but as the reverse is obvious in the present instance, it is still the more objectionable. Were it, therefore, a name of recent introduction, we should certainly take the liberty of altering it; but, as it has been long known under the title of Musk Rose, however vague and imperfect the reference, we do not think ourselves authorized to change it.
It is a native of the island of Madeira, and a very desirable rose, although by no means splendid; but as one of the latter blowing it is a considerable addition, as it illumines that part of autumn, when the major part of this luxuriant tribe have ceased to bloom.
Our figure was made from a fine plant in the nursery of Messrs. Whitley and Brames, Old Brompton.
