noun
A shrub rose of a variety with grey-green leaves and pinkish-white, sweet-scented flowers.
‘Bourbons, damasks, albas, gallicas, mosses and rugosas are all likely groups of roses to choose from for fragrance - the difficulty is narrowing down the candidates.’- ‘Many old garden roses, and these include the albas, bourbons, centifolias, damasks, chinas, noisettes, etc., bloom only once a season.’
- ‘Ipomoea alba with longer flower tubes correspondingly had the highest mean total nectar volume per flower and nectary volume.’
- ‘And Bourbons, unlike the albas, are repeat bloomers.’
- ‘A 5-cm midline skin incision was made to the linea alba.’
Origin
Late 18th century from Latin alba, feminine of albus ‘white’, from the name rosa alba, an old white garden rose.
proper noun
- Gaelic name for Scotland
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