R0800MMON ROSE 433 ROSCOMMON, an unorganized county of N. Michigan, drained by the south branch of the Au Sable and some of the head waters of the Muskegon and Titibawasee rivers ; area, 625 sq. m. ; returned as having no population in 1870. It contains several lakes, the largest of which are Higgins's and Houghton's. The surface is rolling, and the soil poor. ROSCOM9ION, a central county of Ireland, in Connaught, bordering on Sligo, Leitrim, Long- ford, Westmeath, King's, Galway, and Mayo; area, 915 sq. m. ; pop. in 1871, 141,246. The Curlew and Braulieve mountains, which attain a height of from 1,000 to 1,200 ft., lie in the north of the county. The Shannon and its tributary the Suck flow on about two thirds of the whole boundary line, the former ex- panding in several lakes, of which the largest is Lough Ree. The Shannon has been made navigable by means of short canals, and the Suck can be ascended by flat-bottomed boats about 10 m. above its junction with the for- mer. Grazing and agriculture are the chief occupations. Coarse woollen goods are made, and there are manufactories of tobacco pipes and earthenware. The principal towns are Roscommon, the capital, Boyle, and Elphin. ROSCOBDION, Wentworth Dillon, earl of, an Eng- lish poet, born in Ireland about 1634, died Jan. 17, 1684. He was the nephew of the earl of Strafford, after whose impeachment he went to the continent. After the restoration he held various offices about the court. An edition of his poems was published in 1717, and in the same year his " Essay on Transla- ted Verse." He is reputed to be the only popular poet of the reign of Charles II. whose writings are not immoral. ROSE, the common name for plants of the genus rosa, the ancient Latin name, which has been adopted into most European languages. The genus gives its name to the family rosa- cece, which includes most of the cultivated fruits and many of the ornamental plants of northern climates, among which are herbs, shrubs, and trees, with simple or compound, usually alternate and stipulate leaves ; flowers usually regular ; the sepals mostly united, and often adherent to the ovary ; petals four or five, inserted on the calyx, as are the usually numerous, distinct stamens ; one to many pis- tils, distinct or (in the pear tribe) united with the calyx tube ; seeds without albumen. About 70 genera are included in this family, which are grouped in several tribes ; the characters of the important tribes are given in describing the plants belonging to them ; the peach, cherry, and plum represent the tribe prunes ; the almond represents the amygdalece ; spiraea stands for another subtribe ; the rubece, are de- scribed under RASPBERRY ; the strawberry rep- resents another tribe ; while the apple, pear, quince, and thorn are familiar representatives of the most important tribe, pomece. In the tribe rosece the only genus is rosa, which, while widely differing in appearance from the genera just referred to, has all the essential characters of the family in common with them. The spe- cies of rose are all shrubs, sometimes climbing, and generally prickly; they have alternate, odd-pinnate, and generally serrate leaves, with stipules united with the base of the petiole ; flowers solitary, or in clusters at the ends of the branches ; calyx with an urn-shaped tube, contracted at the mouth, and five spreading, often leafy lobes; petals five, spreading, and with the numerous stamens inserted on the edge of the hollow, thin disk that lines the calyx tube ; pistils numerous, concealed in and attached to the lower part of the disk, their hairy ovaries becoming bony akenes in fruit ; in ripening, the enlarged calyx becomes fleshy, often colored, and forms a fruit popularly known as hip or hep. The foliage, steins, and calyx in some species bear aromatic glands. There are few genera in which so much con- fusion exists in regard to species as in the rose, the plants being very variable even in the wild state; about 180 species have been de- scribed, and many more enumerated, but the best authorities admit only about 30 ; in the limited area of Great Britain some botanists find 20 species, while others reduce these all to five. Probably the next revision of the genus will reduce the North American species to six or eight, though several more have been de- scribed ; of these, three are frequent in the northern states. Our most common wild rose on dry soils is the dwarf rose (rosa lucida) ; it is from 1 to 3 ft. high, the stems with bristly prickles, the depressed-globular hip smooth when ripe ; this varies greatly in wet soil, and forms of it have been described as distinct species ; it blooms from May to July, while the swamp rose (R. Carolina) blooms from June to September ; this has stems 4 to 7 ft. high, armed with stout hooked prickles, and the fruit is somewhat bristly ; it is found in low moist grounds as well as in swamps. These two are the common wild roses in the eastern states, and extend as far south as Florida. The early wild rose (R. llanda), 1 to 3 ft. high, is nearly unarmed, or has a few straight deciduous prickles; the flower stalks and calyx, which are glandular bristly in both the preceding, are in this smooth and glaucous ; this is a northern species found as far as Hudson bay ; it extends from Vermont along the northern border to California, and has been described under sev- eral names. The prairie, Michigan, or climb- ing rose (R. tetigera), our only scandent spe- cies, makes shoots 15 to 20 ft. long in a sea- son ; it has stout, nearly straight prickles ; leaves with only three to five leaflets; the abundant flowers, produced in July, are deep rose-colored, changing to white; unlike any other native species, this has its styles united in a column and projecting beyond the calyx tube ; common in rich soil from western New York, westward and southward, and some- times cultivated, though not so often as the double varieties derived from it. A few ex-
