ROS
being a white and thick flime : if a quantity of this be put into a drinking glafs, or other fuch veflel, arid the water drained from it, it will fomewhat fhrink in twelve hours (landing, and will become To folid as to take the form of the o-iafs, and may be fhook out; it then refembles a lump of boiled white ftarch, but is fomewhat more tranfparent. We have, in the Philofophical Tranfadtions, a very re- markable account of a vegetable production from this jelly. A perfbn having put a quantity of it into a double veflel, in order to putrify it, obfervcd, that after fome days, the moifture was in great part evaporated, through a fault in the rutmg : 6f the junctures, and that a large mufhroom was growing up out of the almoft dry refiduum. It wis, he fays, of a fbuiigy and watery nature, and of the fame nature with fome which he had feen growing out of rotten \700d. The warmth employed in this digeftion was that of a balneum marie*. The probable account of this is, that the feeds of this mufhroom, which are very light, and eafily wafted about every where by the winds, had fallen into the jelly, in the time of its being expofed ; and finding it a pro- per nidus, had, by means of the additional warmth, which is alio greatly beneficial to all the mufhroom clafs, been fet a growing, and arrived tit their perfection in the form of the parent plant they fell from. There are in the fame paper other odd accounts of productions of the animal kingdom, in the fame dew, which might puzzle any one not verfed in experiments of this kind with other fluids. In one or the vef- felsof this dctu he found millepides, differing from the com- mon kind in fome particulars. Thefe were the common water millepides ; 'and in another he found a quantity of green matter, probably a conferva, with numerous eulse of infect s inhabiting it ; for in a few days there were produced from this a vaft number of flies. Another parcel of the dtw, let in an open clafs, was found after fome days filled with the cube or the common gnat, and the flies were hatched from thefe. Phil. Tranf. N D 3. It is eafy for a bad philofopher to infer from thefe accounts the equivocal generation of thefe creatures in the water ; but the infigftt we have had into the wonders of nature in the infect world are fuch, that at prefent we know their gene- ration to be in many fpecies, particularly in the gnat and fly kinds, from the eggs of their parents depofited in water, or any watery fluids, and that common ditch water will at any time do what the dew does in this experiment. Ros foils, fundew, in botany, the name of a genus of plants, the characters of which are thefe. The flower is of the rofaceous kind, compofed of feveral leaves, arranged in a circular form. The cup is tubular, and the piftil which arifes from it is at length converted into an oval pointed
- fruit, which opening at the extremity, difcovers a number
of oblong, or roundifh feeds. To thefe marks, it is to be added, that the leaves are covered with long hairs, from which there feem to be feparated large drops of water. The fpecies of fundew enumerated by Mr. Tournefort are thefe. 1. The common round leaved fundew. 2. The common long leaved fundew. 3. The perennial round leaved fundew. 4. The perennial long leaved fundew. 5, The largcff, long leaved fundew ; and 6. The Portugal fundew, with leaves like thofe of the fmaller afphodel. Tourn. Lift, p. 244. ROSA, the rofe. See the article Rose. RosAcraaj, in church hiftory. See Rosycrucians, Cycl. Rosa fatuina, in botany, a name given by fome authors to
the piony. Rosa junonh, in botany, a name given by fome authors to
the lilly.
ROSACEOUS _^o«.vr, rofaeais flosy in botany, a term ufed to exprefs fuch flowers, as are compofed of feveral petals or leaves, difpofed in a fort of circular form, like thofe of the rofe : fuch are the flowers of the piony, crowfoot, cinquefoil, £ffc In this fort of flowers the difpofition only of the leaves is regarded, their number being of no eonfequence. It is very feldom that the number is two or four, except in the circa-a and onagra. The mod frequent number of leaves in thefe flowers is five, and fuch as have four differ from the cruciform flowers, not only in their difpofition, but in this, that the number is in the fame fpecies indeterminately four, five, or fix, as is the cafe in the clematitis, the capers, and the fpe- cies of rue, whereas in the cruciform ones it is ever con- usant. See Tab. 1. of Botany, Clafs 1. Tourn. Lift. p. 234. ROSACLORUM, or according to fome authors refi-chiirfy a fine red ufed to enamel on gold with. It is prepared in this manner : take ten pound of cryftal glafs, put it into a pot, and when it is well melted, add to it, at twice, a pound of the beft red lead, ftir the mafs well together, and afterwards caft it into water. Repeat this procefs three times, then when the matter is again in fufion, mix with it five ounces of calcined brafs, and the fame quantity of the deepeft cinnabar ; ftir the whole well together, and let it fettle three hours ; then add of glafs of tin three ounces, mix the whole, and it will be of a fine rofe colour. Merrefs Notes on Neri, p. 350. ROSALIA, a name ufed by authors for the meafles, or a dif- eafe very like the meafles^ confifting in a number of afpe- 4 J
ROS
rities and protuberances of the fkin, which foon 'die away. ROSARBA, in botany, the name of an imaginary plants which has given great trouble to the commentators on the works of the antients.
The Arabian writers, Avifenna, Serapion, and others, have mentioned two kinds of carob or ceration ; the one efcu- lent, and endued with the virtue of a gentle purgative, the other an aftringent.
This laft they have diftinguiihcd from the other by the name of the nabathsean pod or aljembut They fay, in their de- fcriptions, that the aijembut is like the rofarba, (o run the old translations, but the true meaning of the original is rofa vinea. This was a name given to the common wild acacia tree, and the tree which produced the nabathrean pod, might be very well likened to this ; it being) in reality, only a fpecies of the acacia, and the fuccUs acacia-, or in- fpifllited acacia juice of the ihops j being, according to Ifi- dore, made oftentimes from the unripe fruit of this very fpecies. ROSARIA, among the Romans, a kind of perfumes, fo called, either from their being chiefly made of rofes, orbecaufe they had a moft exuuifire odour. ROSARY {Cycl.) is a word frequently met with in the antient hiftories of Ireland, and ufed to exprefs a peculiar fort of bafe money coined abroad, in the form of the penny* cur- rent In that kingdom ; but of fo much barter an alloy, that it was not worth quite half the real value of the penny. This and many other fuch coins were decried, and it was made death to import any of them by Edward the firft in 1300. ROSBOTH, a word ufed by fome authors to exprefs a foft
excrefcence from any part. ROSCOL/E, a name given by fome medical writers to the
meafles. ROSE, Rosa, in botany, the name of a genus of trees, the characters of which are thefe. The flower is compofed of feveral petals arranged in a circular form. The cup is com- pofed of feveral leaves, and finally becomes a roundifh or oblong fiefhy fruit, which is unicapfular, and contains a number of angular hairy feeds.
The fpecies of rofe enumerated by Mr. Tournefort are thefe. 1. The fingle red rofe. 2, The double red rofe. 3. The double reddifh black rofe. 4. The red rofe which does not open. 5. The fingle pale red rofe t 6. The double pale redrofe. 7. The deep or blackifh red rofe. 8. The purple rofe. 9. The fingle purple rofe. 10. The changeable co- loured rofe. 11. The Englifh changeable rofe. 12. The red and white variegated rofe. 13. Trie Ciphian rofe, or fmall pimpernel leaved Scotch rofe, with elegantly variegated flowers. 14. The greateft double rofe. 15. The middle fized double rofe. 16. The great fingle white rofe. 17, The great double white rofe. 18. The fmall white rofe. 19. The large mufk rofe. 20. The fingle flowered mufk rofe. 2i. The double flowered mufk rofe. 22. The ever- green mu/k rofe. 23. The large flowered rofe without prickles. 24. The fmall flowered rofe without prickles. 25. The curled leaved rofe with bright red flowers. 26. The common wild rofe with a pale fweet fcented flower. 27. The wild rofe with a large deep red flower. 28. The double flowered dog rofe or wild briar. 29. The eglantine* or fweet briar, with double flowers. 30. The common fingle flowered fwcet briar. 31. The wild rofe with red very fweet fcented flowers. 32. The wild rofe, with a white very fweet flower. 33. The fingle cinnamon rofe. 34. The double flowered cinnamon rofe. 35. The fmall red rofe, commonly called the May rofe. 36. The fingle yellow rofe. 37. The double yellow rofe. 38. The very thorny field rofe with a white fweet fcented flower. 39. The dwarf very thorny rofe with red flowers. 40. The dwarf alpine rofe, with fmall roundifh pimpernel leaves, and very little flowers, of a livid red. 41. The wild dwarf red rofe. 42. The great wild apple rofe. 43. The white field rofe. 44. The creeping white Held rofe. 45. The fmalleft rofe. 46. The two flowered field rofe without prickles. 47. The pale red mouth rofe. 48. The white mouth rofe. 49. The double pale red mouth rofe. 50. The fingle purple mouth rofe. 51. The crimibn rofe. 52. The Frankfort rofe with a thick cup, which does not open its flowers ; and 53. The wild rofe or briar with large hairy fruit. Tourn. Lift. p. 637.
We have a vaft variety of thefe beautiful flowers preferved in our gardens ; fome few of which are natives of our own. coun- try, but the far greater number are of foreign origin. They are all propagated either by fuckers, by layers, or by bind- ing them on the other forts of rofs ; the laft method is but feldom practifed, but is ncceflary for the finer forts, which do not naturally fhoot vigorously, and which produce few or no fuckers. The beft fort of rofe for ftocks is the Frank- fort kind ; the feafbn for doing it is in June, and there mull be great care afterwards, that the flock produce no fuckers at the bottom, for thefe would foon ftarve the bud. Milkr y % Gardner's Diet.
When rofes are to be propagated from fuckers, they are to be taken oft 7 annually, and planted into nurfery beds, or into the places where they are to remain. They always
take
