"Provins," the name applied in France, as I have said in another place, to the Rosa gallica, a semidouble variety of which is cultivated for the purpose of making rose-water largely in the environs of Provins, a small market-town sixty-six miles to the east of Paris, on the road to Nancy. By early writers on gardening our rose is called Rosa Provincialis, or the Provence Rose. No one seems to know why it was thus named, its origin being entirely lost. Let us therefore assume that we owe it to the Provençal poets, the gay troubadours, who, with chivalric liberality, gave us their songs and their roses; and let us not lose its beautiful poetic name: it is indeed worthy of it.

The Crested Provence, Crested Moss, or Rosa cristata, for it is known by these three names, is said to have been discovered growing from the crevice of a wall at Friburg in Switzerland. No rose can be more singular and beautiful: the buds before expansion are so clasped by its fringed sepals, that they present a most unique and elegant appearance totally unlike any other rose.

When the flower is fully expanded this peculiar beauty vanishes, and it has merely the appearance of a superior variety of the Provence Rose. It should here be mentioned that, if grown in a poor soil, its buds often lose their crest, and come plain like those of the latter. As a standard, this rose is very graceful, its large flowers and buds drooping from their weight.

The Dutch, or Large Provence, is exactly like the Old Cabbage Rose, and equally fragrant, but very much larger: this is a fine rose for forcing.

La Reine de Provence really deserves to be the queen of this division. Its large and finelyshaped globular flowers have a good effect when suspended from a standard: these are of a pale lilac rose-colour, distinct and beautiful. The Scarlet Provence is an old variety, one of those misnomers that in flowers so often lead to disappointment: it was probably the first Provence Rose that made an approach to scarlet; but the faint carmine of its flowers is very far removed from that rare colour among roses.

The Unique Provence is a genuine English rose, which was found by Mr. Grimwood*, then of the Kensington Nursery, in some cottagegarden, growing among plants of the common Cabbage Rose. This variety was at first much

* Mr. Grimwood, when on his annual business journey in 1777, perceived a beautiful white rose growing in the garden of Mr. Richmond, a baker, living near Needham Market, Suffolk : on inquiry, he found that it had been planted there by a carpenter, who had found it growing near, or in a hedge a short distance from, the house of a Dutch merchant, which he had been repairing. Mr. G. asked for a branch, but obtained the entire plant, which Mr. Richmond willingly gave him. On his next journey, the following year, Mr. Grimwood made him a present of a handsome silver cup, on which was engraved a figure of the rose; this kind remembrance Mr. Richmond most carefully preserved till his death.-Roses, by H. C. Andrews, London, 1805. 4to.

esteemed, and plants of it were sold at very high prices. Most probably this was not a seedling from the Old Cabbage Rose, as that is too double to bear seed in this country, but what is called by florists a sporting* branch or sucker. In describing this and the next division I shall have occasion to notice more of these spontaneous deviations. The Striped Unique is one; for this was not raised from seed, but, a flowering branch of the Unique Provence having produced striped flowers, plants were budded from it, and the variety was "fixed," as the French florists term it. However, this is certainly not fixed; for it is a most inconstant rose, in some soils producing flowers beautifully striped, in others entirely red, and in the soil of this nursery most frequently pure white.

The Dwarf Provence Roses, Rose de Meaux, and the Pompon Rose, are among the oldest of our garden roses, and known by every child brought up in a garden, as they are "so early and so pretty." Formerly two or three varieties of the Pompon Rose were cultivated, but they differed only in name. The Rose de Meaux forms a pretty edging, and is desirable for its spring

* A term used to denote any portion of a plant departing from the character the entire plant should sustain. Thus, one stem of a carnation will often produce plain-coloured flowers, while the remainder of the plant has striped flowers: it is then said "to sport."

gladdening flowers. Spong's Rose is of this group, with rather larger flowers: it forces well, and is a pretty rose.

There are no new Provence Roses, for, like most of the summer roses, they are not esteemed as formerly, owing to their blooming but once in the season; still a bouquet of old Cabbage roses, or of the Crested, is above all others most fragrant and beautiful.

Culture and Pruning.

There are but two ways in which Provence Roses can be employed as ornaments to the flower-garden, -as standards for the lawn, and as dwarfs for beds. Standards of some of the varieties, if grown on a strong clayey soil, form fine objects of ornament, as their large globular flowers are so gracefully pendant. In this description of soil also, if grown as dwarfs, they will not flourish unless they are worked on the Dog Rose; but in light sandy soils it will be advisable to cultivate them on their own roots, the freedom with which they grow in the light sandy soils of Surrey points out this method of culture on such soils as the most eligible. In pruning, they require a free use of the knife: every shoot should be shortened to three or four buds. If not pruned in this severe manner, the plants soon become straggling and unsightly. To prolong their period of flowering, half the shoots

may be pruned in October, the remainder at the end of April. In poor soils, they should have annually, in November, a dressing of rotten manure on the surface of the bed, to be washed in by the rains of winter.

THE MOSS ROSE.

(ROSA CENTIFOLIA MUSCOSA.)

Rosier Cent feuille Mousseuse.

The Moss Rose, or Mossy Provence Rose, is most probably an accidental sport or seminal variety of the common Provence Rose, as the Old Double Moss Rose, which was introduced to this country from Holland in 1596, is the only one mentioned by our early writers on gardening. If it had any claims to be ranked as a botanical species, the single-flowering Moss Rose would have been the first known and described; but the Single Moss, as compared with the double, is a new variety. Some few years since a traveller in Portugal mentioned that the Moss Rose grew wild in the neighbourhood of Cintra; but, most likely, the plants were stragglers from some

* Miller says, with a most remarkable simplicity, that he thinks it must be a distinct species, as it is so much more difficult of propagation than the common Provence Rose.