21 



sought for tliis rose on both sides of the Straits, at different 

 seasons, and it was by the kindness of a local botanist, Mr. 

 John E. Griffith, F.L.S., of Vronheulog, Upper Bangor, and 

 in his company, that I had, at last, the pleasure of seeing 

 the plant in its native state. 



At the date of our visit, while other roses were in full 

 leaf, all the leaves of Rosa Wilsoni had fallen from the fruc- 

 tiferous branches, and the bare bushes with their bright 

 scarlet fruits and erect sepals, and their claret-coloured 

 branches with their divaricate twigs, gave the plant a very 

 marked facies, so that it would not be likely to be over- 

 looked by any one who had once seen it in the living state. 

 There were a few barren shoots growing from the old 

 stocks, crowded with prickles, and each surmounted with a 

 tuft of leaves. In some cases the leaves were of an ashy- 

 green colour, but most of the shoots had the serrations of 

 their leaves edged, on their upper surface, with a rosy-claret 

 colour, which passed into a large central crimson-purple 

 blotch along both sides of the midrib. These purple patches 

 were of a redder tinge than the dark purple leaves of the 

 contiguous Rosa spinosissima, L. 



The most noticeable feature of the station for this plant 

 Avas the extremely limited area upon which it gi-ew ; there 

 were very few bushes, and the whole patch could readily 

 be accommodated in one half the area of the Society's present 

 meeting-room. The sea is gradually encroaching upon the 

 bank occupied by the plants, and as these begin to occur 

 just above high-water mark at a part of the shore where it is 

 exposed to rough wave-action, it is an easy matter to foresee 

 the approaching extinction of the Rose. Last winter, as I 

 learned from Mr. J. E. Griffith, a portion of the area on 

 which Rosa Wilsoni grows was utilised by the owners of 

 the oyster-beds in the Straits for piling-up some of their 

 stores, so that the rose's present lease of life is doubly 

 imperilled. 



It is a singular circumstance in the geographical distri- 

 bution of Rosa Wilsoni that excepting on the Umbra rocks 



