XIV. A Synopsis of the PN Species of Rosa. By- Joseph 
Wood$, Esq. F.L.S. 
Read April 16 and June 4, 1816. 
Tur beauty of the Rose is so trite a theme, that it would be al- 
most impossible to praise it in any other terms than have already 
been used for the same subject:—but beautiful as it is, the genus 
has long been involved in confusion and obscurity. Born with 
the same senses, the same tastes as other men, the botanist will 
feel its beauties even more strongly than they do, in proportion as 
those tastes and senses have been more exercised towards simi- 
lar objects. But the difficulties attending the investigation of 
these plants are at least equal to the charms of their appearance 
and fragrance: even their commonness has perhaps contributed 
to our ignorance of them. Educated with Roses always before 
our eyes, it is long ere we learn to consider them as objects of 
science; and the excitement of novelty is lost while we are yet 
incapable of accurate examination. For my own part, if I had 
not been stimulated by the strikingly different appearance of the 
genus in the hedges of Westmoreland from that which it assumes 
in the southern counties, I should probably never have exposed 
my insufficiency in this attempt to discriminate the species: but 
the almost uniformly villous leaves and the colour of the flowers, 
generally either a white (sometimes almost pure, sometimes with 
a spot or two of full red), or else a much deeper red than in any 
of the Roses in the neighbourhood of London, attracted my atten- 
tion, 
