Rosa

(rozah.) [L.] (Bot.) A large gen. of plants, O. Rosaceæ, distinguished by the following characters:Leaves with stipules attached to the leaf-stalk; petals five; stamens and styles numerous; seeds (achenes) numerous, enclosed within but not adhering to the fleshy calyx-tube, which is contracted at the orifice. Throughout the civilized world undisputed precedence among flowers has been conceded to the Rose in all ages and by universal consent. In the sacred writings, by cla ical authors, by the poets of all countries, this Queen of Flowers is the Fig. 569.- CHINA ROSE. epitome of beauty and fragrance, the emblem of refined sensual enjoyment. A bare enumeration of the groups in which cultivated roses are arranged by growers would occupy too much of our space; but the reader may be interested in knowing that the number of wild species described by botanists exceeds two hundred, to which may be added at least as many more sub-species or varieties; while the list of garden varieties, mostly with double flowers, numbers you sands, and is every year receiving fresh additions. Rosa Can in a, with its varieties, is the Dog-Rose of our hedges, and the Eglantine of the French. Ro'sa, SALVATOR, a celebrated Italian painter, B. near Naples, in 1615, after studying his art at Rome, took part in the revolt of Masa niello at Naples in 1647. Escaping to Florence he there received the patronage of the Grand-Duke, and painted many of his finest pictures. D. at Rome, 1673. R. excelled as a master of the sombre and the gloomily picturesque in landscape. He also produced battle-and history-pieces, one of the latter, The Conspiracy of Cat i line, being considered his ablest performance. [s. 778]