ii8 ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY 



BOTANICAL NOTES AND NEWS. 



Rosa involuta, .$'///., in Forfarshire. In July last, whilst staying 

 at Carnoustie, I fell in with rather a remarkable colony of R. involuta. 

 It consists of eleven distinct clumps scattered at intervals over a 

 distance of more than half a mile. Three of them occur at a short 

 distance from Muirdrum, by the side of a cross road which branches 

 off from the road to Carnoustie. The others grow here and there on 

 the bank of a small stream which crosses the main road a little 

 farther on, and which winds through the bottom of a den with high 

 and often steep banks. Some of these clumps are rather extensive. 

 One stretches along the top of a bank for a distance of about 25 

 yards, interrupted, however, by a couple of young trees, and with some 

 other bushes intermixed. Others stretch over a length of 15 to 30 

 feet. I shall reserve for another occasion a detailed description of 

 their resemblances and differences, as well as the discussion of that 

 question which Professor Crepin has recommended to British 

 botanists, viz. whether the second parent be jR. tomentosa or R. mollis. 

 This is generally a difficult problem, at least in Scotland, where, in 

 most districts, R. mollis is at least as plentiful as R. tomentosa. In this 

 case, it is peculiarly difficult owing to circumstances which I need 

 not now detail. In fact, I have as yet been unable to come to any 

 definite opinion, except in the case of one clump which I believe to 

 be R. pimpinellifolia x tomentosa. The others, which are different 

 in several respects, require further study. 



Can any of your Forfarshire readers give any information as to 

 the distribution of R. involuta in their county. Don found it, accord- 

 ing to Baker, on a rock on one of the mountains of Clova, near the 

 limits of perpetual snow ! In Gardiner's Flora it is said to be 

 common in the Highland valleys of the county, but I do not know 

 what ground he had for this statement. In those districts where 

 R. pimpinellifolia occurs, it should be looked for. W. BARCLAY. 



R. hiberniea in Midlothian. In Professor Crepin's " Rosse 

 Hybridse," page 146, he refers to specimens of R. hiberniea gathered 

 by Gorrie in 1866, between Melville Hall and Bellyford Burn, and 

 which are now in the Herbarium at the Edinburgh Botanic Gardens. 

 Gorrie's plant, like R. hiberniea of the North of Ireland, has the 

 leaves pubescent below, and, so far as I know, it is the only bush of 

 this variety of R. hiberniea which has yet been found in Scotland. 

 Wishing to study the plant if it was still to be found, I visited the 

 locality in the end of August 1895. I failed to find it, but was not 

 surprised at that, as all the bushes on one side of the road had, a short 

 time before, been cut close to the ground. As the roots were left, 

 however, I felt certain that the plant, if still there, would come up 



