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Venus and Roses: beauties of heaven and earth R. centifolia : Hope

Renaissance painter Botticelli is famous for such masterpieces as "Primavera" and "Birth of Venus" that evoke both love and spirituality and project an ideal womanly beauty. But have you noticed in these paintings that dainty rose petals are blowing in the wind? The rose petals depicted in these paintings are of a different kind from the modern garden rose. They are R. alba and R. centifolia, both of which are original species. The name "centifolia" means "100 petals". Does its blossom really have that many petals? A Shiseido perfumer counted the petals of two Centifolia roses and confirmed that the name was true to its form, since there were 101 petals on one, and 113 petals on the other.