ROSA CAROLIiNA. 



SWAMP ROSE. 



NATURAL ORDER, ROSACEA. 



Rosa Carolina. Linnaeus. — Stem erect, smooth, armed with stout, recurved, stipular prickles; 

 leaflets five to nine, oblong or elliptical, acute, finely serrate, dull and smoothish above, 

 the lower surface paler, or, like the prickly petioles and caudate calyx-lobes, tomentose ; 

 flowers single or corymbose ; calyx-tube and peduncles glandular-hispid ; stem four to six 

 feet high, commonly purplish; fruit depressed-globose, glandular. (Chapman's Flora of 

 the Southern United States. See also Gray's Manual of the Botany of the Northern United 

 States, and Wood's Class-Book of Botany.) 



HE botanists of the earlier part of this century frequently 

 gave specific names to mere varieties, since they were 

 not as well informed as those of our own time in regard to the 

 tendency to variation in plants and flowers, a tendency which is 

 shown much more distinctly in some species than in others. But 

 later, when it was not thought necessary to specially note these 

 variations, their names, previously given, often remained as syno- 

 nyms to burden botanical nomenclature ; and hence the greater 

 the tendency to vary, the more synonyms a plant may have. 

 Our Rosa Caj^olina, being a very variable species, furnishes a 

 good illustration of this statement. From the list of synonyms 

 given by Mr. Watson in his " Bibliographical Index to North 

 American Botany " we select the following as of most impor- 

 tance: R. Virginiana, by Du Roi ; R. corymbosa, by Ehrhart; 

 R. Caroliniensis and R. palustris, by Marshall ; R. Pcniisylva- 

 iiica, by Michaux ; R. Jiorida, by Don; R. Jiextiosa and R. ennea- 

 phylla, by Rafinesque ; and R. Hudsonica, by Thory. Several of 

 these names show that they were based on the number of flowers 

 in a cluster, or of leaflets in the leaf, or on other peculiarities 



