ROSA Provincialis, multiplex.
Double or Cabbage Province Rose.
CHARACTER SPECIFICUS.
Rosa, multiplex, germinibus sub-globosis; pedunculis petiolisque hispidis et glandulosis; aculeis ramorum sparsis, rectis, sub-reflexis; foliolis ovatis, subtus villosis, marginibus glandulosis.
SPECIFIC CHARACTER.
Rose, with many folds, and nearly round seed-buds; the peduncles and petioles are hispid and glandular; the prickles of the branches are scattered, straight, and slightly reflexed; leaflets egg-shaped, villous beneath, with glandular margins.
This variety of the Common Province is the most fragrant of all the Roses, and therefore particularly desirable; for, although it cannot be ranked among the rare, it is nevertheless one of the most beautiful. Its sweetness, joined to the abundance of its blossoms, has rendered it an object of culture, for the purpose of distillation; as it yields a much greater quantity of scented water than any other rose. It is generally denominated the Cabbage Province, from the extreme complexity of its petals, which sometimes adhere so closely together, as to prevent entirely their expansion without bursting:—a circumstance that frequently occurs in the vegetable from which its specific distinction is derived, and which we regard to be unequivocally good, as we should every similitude of equally easy reference. By the closeness and superabundance of its petals only, is it distinguished from the Common Province, of which it is certainly an interesting variety.
