[Original]
Rosa Roevigata.—No foreign work on the Rose includes this species among those held worthy of culture; yet in our Southern States, where it is naturalized, it is singularly beautiful. In the North it is not hardy, though the root commonly survives the winter, while the stem and branches are destroyed. It comes originally from China. Its shoots and leaves resemble those of the Banksia Rose; the former being long, pendulous, and graceful, and the latter of the most vivid green. Its flowers are single, very large, and of the purest waxy white, in the midst of which appears the bright yellow of the clustering stamens. Its long, slender, tapering buds are unsurpassed in beauty. It thrives admirably in a cool greenhouse, climbing with a rampant growth over the rafters, and giving forth a profusion of flowers through the greater part of the winter. Unlike all the other roses described in this book, it is a species in its original, undeveloped state, and, as such, offers a tempting subject for the art of the hybridist.
[Original]
Rosa Microphylla.—This is an introduction within the present century from the Himalaya Mountains, and is rather a curiosity than an ornament. The leaves are very small and very numerous; and, by a curious freak of Nature, all the spines seem gathered together on the calyx, or outer covering of the flower-buds. The original variety, Microphylla Rubra, is perhaps the best. Among others may be named Carnea, Coccinea, Rosea, and Purpurea.
There is a rose, commonly sold under the name of Microphylla Rugosa, which is very desirable from the abundance of its autumnal bloom, and from its hardy nature; a point in which it differs from the true Microphyllas. It grows vigorously, and in autumn blooms profusely in large clusters of purplish-red flowers.
