broad or roundish in outline, with a very short stalk or none at all, and of all hues except blue. The very numerous stamens originate from about the same spot as the sepals and petals; each has a slender filament and a small two-celled anther. The inner portion of the receptacular tube whence the stamens spring is thick and fleshy, and is occasionally spoken of as the “disk”; but, as in this case it does not represent any separate organ, it is better to avoid the use of the term. The carpels are very numerous, ultimately hard in texture, covered with hairs, and each provided with a long style and button-like stigma. The carpels are concealed within the receptacular tube and only the stigmas as a rule protrude from its mouth. Each carpel contains one ovule without perisperm. The so-called fruit is merely the receptacular tube, which, as previously mentioned, becomes fleshy and brightly coloured as an attraction to birds, which devour the hips and thus secure the dispersion of the seed. The stamens are in whorls, and, according to Payer, they originate in pairs one on each side of the base of each petal (parapetalous), so that there are ten in each row; a second row of ten alternates with the first, a third with the second, and so on. By repeated radial and tangential branching a vast number of stamens are ultimately produced, and when these stamens assume a petaloid aspect we have as a consequence the double flowers which are so much admired. The carpels are much less subject to this petaloid change, and, as it generally happens in the most double of roses that some few at least of the anthers are formed with pollen, the production of seed and the possibility of cross-breeding become intelligible. Under natural circumstances rose flowers do not secrete honey, the attraction for insects being provided, according to Müller, by the colour and perfume and the abundance of pollen for food. The stigmas and anthers come to maturity at the same time, and thus, while cross-fertilization by insect agency is doubtless most common, close fertilization is not prevented.
In The Student's Flora Sir Joseph Hooker recognizes seven species of Rosa as British. Among them may be mentioned R. spinosissima, the Scotch Rose, much less variable than the others, R. rubiginosa, the Sweet Brier, represented by several varieties, R. canina, the Dog Rose, of which no fewer than twenty-nine varieties are described, and R. arvensis. Cultivated roses are frequently “budded” or worked upon the stems of the brier or R. canina, or upon young seedling plants of the same species. Other species also are used for stocks (see Horticulture). Roses have been grown for so many centuries and have been crossed and recrossed so often that it is difficult to refer the cultivated forms to their wild prototypes. The older roses doubtless originated from R. gallica, a native of central and southern Europe. R. centifolia (the Cabbage Rose), a native of the Caucasus, contributed its share. A cross between the two species named may have been the source whence originated the Bourbon Roses. The yellow-flowered Austrian and Persian Brier originated from R. eglanteria, a native of Austria. The Monthly or China Roses sprang from the Chinese R. indica, and these crossed with others of the R. centifolia or gallica type are the source of the hybrid perpetuals so commonly grown nowadays, because, in addition to their other attractions, their blooming season is relatively prolonged, and, moreover, is repeated in the autumn. Tea Roses and Noisettes, it is to be presumed, also acknowledge Rosa indica as one of their progenitors. The Banksian Rose is a Chinese climbing species, with small white or fawn-coloured flowers of great beauty; the Macartney Rose (R. bracteata) is also of Chinese origin. Its nearly evergreen deep green leaves and large white flowers are very striking. The Japanese R. rugosa is also a remarkable species, notable for its bold rugose foliage, its large white or pink flowers, and its conspicuous globular fruit. R. damascena is cultivated in some parts of Roumelia for the purpose of making attar of roses (see Oils and Perfumery). According to Hanbury, the flowers are gathered before sunrise and distilled the same day. The distilled liquid is allowed to remain for a day or two, by which time most of the oil will have risen to the surface, from which it is skimmed off. The percentage yielded is very small, not more than 0.04.
In India R. damascena is grown largely near Ghazipur for the purpose of procuring attar of roses and rose water. The roses are distilled with double their weight of water. The attar is skimmed off in the Turkish method. Colonel Drury mentions that it takes 200,000 roses to yield the weight of a rupee in attar. This quantity sells on the spot for 100 rupees. Rose water is chiefly produced in Europe from the Provence or cabbage rose, R. centifolia, grown for the purpose at Mitcham and much more abundantly in the south of France. Conserve of roses and infusion of roses, two medicinal preparations retained for their agreeable qualities rather than for any special virtue, are prepared from the petals of Rosa gallica, one variety of which was formerly grown for the purpose near the town of Provins. Conserve of dog rose is made from the ripe hips of the dog rose, Rosa canina. Its only use is in the manufacture of pills.
The name Rose of Jericho is popularly applied to a small Cruciferous weed, Anastatica hierochuntina, a native of the desert regions of Egypt, Arabia, Palestine, and Persia. In the dry season the dead branches are strongly incurved, and thus serve to protect the still living seed in the pods. In the wet season the branches absorb the moisture to a large extent, unfold, resume the direction they had in life, and facilitate the dispersion of the seed under circumstances favourable to germination. The plant is frequently carried off as a curiosity, inasmuch as immersion in a basin of water enables it to resume the original form and to create the impression that the plant “comes to life again,” but the process is purely a physical one.
ROSELLINI, Ippolito (1800-1843), a native of Pisa and subsequently professor there of Oriental languages, in which Mezzofanti was his teacher, is best known as the associate of J. F. Champollion (q.v.), whose studies he shared and whom he accompanied in his Egyptian explorations (1828). On the death of Champollion the publication of the results of their expedition fell to Rosellini (Monumenti dell' Egitto e della Nubia, Florence, 1832-1840, 10 vols. fol.).
ROSEMARY (Rosmarinus), a well-known Labiate plant, the only representative of the genus and a native of the Mediterranean region. It is a low shrub with linear leaves, dark green above, white beneath, and with margins rolled back on to the under surface. The flowers are in small axillary clusters. Each has a two-lipped calyx, from which projects a bluish two-lipped corolla enclosing two stamens, the other two being deficient. The fruit consists of four smooth nutlets. Botanically the genus is near to Salvia, but it differs in the shorter connective to the anther. Rosemary was highly esteemed by the ancients for its aromatic fragrance and medicinal uses. In modern times it is valued mainly as a perfume, for which purpose the oil is obtained by distillation. It doubtless has slight stimulant properties, which may account for the general belief in the efficacy of the plant in promoting the growth of the hair. Rosemary plays no unimportant part in literature and folk-lore, being esteemed as an emblem of remembrance. “There's rosemary, that's for remembrance,” says Ophelia. Its use in connexion with funeral ceremonies is not extinct in country places to this day, and it was formerly as much valued at wedding festivities. The name “ros marinus” or “ros maris” was probably given in allusion to its native habitat in the neighbourhood of the sea.
ROSETTA (see Egypt, vol. vii. p. 768). The celebrated Rosetta Stone, a basalt stele containing a decree of Ptolemy V. Epiphanes in hieroglyphics, demotic, and Greek, which supplied the key for the decipherment of the ancient monuments of Egypt, was found near Fort St Julien, 4 miles north of the town, in 1799, by Boussard, a French officer. It is now in the British Museum.
ROSEWOOD. Under this name several distinct kinds of ornamental timber are more or less known. That, however, so called in the United Kingdom is Brazilian rosewood, the palissandre of the French, the finest qualities of which, coming from the provinces of Rio de Janeiro and Bahia, are believed to be the produce principally of Dalbergia nigra, a Leguminous tree of large dimensions, called cabiuna and jacaranda by the Brazilians. The same name, jacaranda, is applied to several species of Machærium, also trees belonging to the natural order Leguminosæ; and there can be no doubt that a certain proportion of the rosewood of commerce is drawn from these sources. Formerly Brazilian rosewood was said, on the authority of the French botanist and traveller Guillemin, to be the produce of a species of Triptolomæa, but that genus has now been constituted a section of Dalbergia. Rosewood comes to the United Kingdom from Rio, Bahia, Jamaica, and Honduras. The heartwood attains large dimensions, but as it begins to decay before the tree arrives at maturity it is always faulty and hollow in the centre. On this account squared logs or planks of rose-
