44 TWO ADDITIONS TO THE LIST OF BRITISH ROSES. 



otliei- species. Knowing that li. pimpincUi folia and B. ruhif/inosa 

 are both plentiful on the downs above Boxley, I thought it very 

 probable that the plants first mentioned might prove to be the 

 offspring of these two. Accordingly, Capt. Wolley Dod and I spent 

 the greater part of a day, early last summer, in systematically 

 searching the bushy downs from Burham south-eastwards, hoping 

 to meet with the hybrid in question. Although we saw many 

 hundreds of both species en route, the object of our search was not 

 forthcoming until, just as we despaired of success, my companion 

 came across eight or ten small bushes, growing amid a regular 

 thicket of R. plmpineHifulia, which we at once saw to be almost 

 intermediate between that and the sweetbriar. While the general 

 habit recalled ])iiiipinell if olla, especially by the crowded, very unequal 

 armature and the small, neat, suborbicular leaflets, these latter 

 were doubly serrate, densely glandular beneath, and almost as 

 sweet-scented as those of rubiginosa, the prickles also having a strong 

 reddish tint and being more or less curved. No flowers had yet 

 expanded; but the pedicels and receptacles, as well as the sepals, 

 were densely glandular-setose, characters which were retained until 

 the fruit dropped off, in a small plant which I transferred to my 

 garden. I have since seen Mr. Beeby's plant, which differs only in 

 having fewer glands on tlie under side of the leaves. 



Although feeling no doubt whatever about the true origin of 

 this form, I sent specimens for Prof. Crepin's op'nion, who replied 

 as follows: — "C'est bien cet hybride, qui se presente tantot avec 

 des pedicelles et receptacles lisses et avec le dos des sepales lisse 

 egalement [= R. biturigensis Bor.), tantot avec des ped., rec. et sep. 

 hispides-glanduleux." He further remarked : — "Le R. pinipiueUi- 

 folia X rubiyinosa sera a comparer avec le R. involuta var. Nicholsonii." 

 This I have not yet seen. In his recent work, Rosce Hybrids, 

 pp. 61-2, M. Crepin indicates the following Continental localities 

 for this hybrid: — France: Bourges (Dept. Cher), Clermont (Dept. 

 Fuy-de-D6ine), Mont- St. -Mar tin (Dept. Ardennes) ; Germany : — - 

 Griinstadt and Diirkheim, in the Palatinate, and Kreuznach, in 

 Ehenish Prussia ; adding [Obs. ii. p. 63) : — " II y aura a examiner 

 si, en Angleterre, le jR. pimpinelli/olia x rubiginosa n'a pas ete 

 confondu parmi les varietes du R. Sabini Woods." 



1 may mention also that I subsequently collected, about a mile 

 further on, a curious rose, which I am inclined to consider 

 micrantha x rubiginosa, a suggestion thought highly probable by 

 Mr. Rogers, to whom I showed all the material gathered. Judging 

 by the specimens sent to him, M. Crepin cannot, however, dis- 

 tinguish it from rubiginosa, from which, indeed, such a combination 

 could with difficulty be separated by any well-defined characters, 

 considering the close kindred of the suggested parents. 



On the last day of July I revisited Boxley Warren in the 

 company of Mr. J. F. Jeffrey, of the Edinburgh Botanic Gardens, 

 and examined a great number of rose-bushes. R. rxibiginosa here 

 varies considerably, but only one of the variations observed has 

 received a special name from Prof. Crepin. This, owing to its 

 small glabrous fruit and smooth pedicels, I at first thought might 



