MISCELLANEA. 187 



no means drooping or "pendant." I likewise observed that my 

 specimens had fewer glandular bristles on their flower-stalks 

 than on those of Winch's specimens, but the size and shape of the 

 petals appeared much the same. Also, some of the leaflets, as 

 in mine, have simple serratures, whilst others present a double 

 serrated margin, and in both the insides of the entire sepals are 

 downy. The flowers in my specimens, when fresh, were of a 

 lively pinky and in size are larger than the flowers of the R. spi~ 

 nosissima, with the petals more notched; but the colours of the 

 flowers of Jl. sjnnosissima, I have invariably observed to be ivhite 

 or yellow-white. My specimens seem, from the fewer bristles on 

 the flower-stalks, to be rather intermediate between R. spinosissima 

 whose flower-stalks are sinooth, and the R. rubella of Winch's 

 Herbarium. Compare also the plate 187, with plate 2521, of the 

 English Botany. And in plate 2601, figure 3, represents the 

 hip or fruit of it. rubella^ as very red, or scarlet; but this, I think. 

 can hardly have attained to perfect maturity. Having gathered 

 all the flowers and buds oft" the two shrubs of R. rubella in June 

 last, I was sorry that I could not ascertain the colour of their 

 jr/vaY during this autumn; but from AVincli's specimen, it would 

 appear that the hip^ when thoroughly ripe, becomes of the same 

 da7'k colour as that of the R. spinosissima. The latter rose I have for 

 many years seen in vast abundance on our sandhills along the 

 coast, as well as inland in dry hedges, where it becomes largej. 

 in growth, and I never noticed its flowers to be at all tinged with 

 pink. But whether the R. rubella, varying as it does in settc, or 

 glandular bristles, is to be esteemed a really distinct species, and 

 n(5t merely a rare variety of it. spinosissima, I must leave for the 

 determination of other Botanists, who are better acquainted with 

 the difficult genus of Rosa, as indigenous in Britain. — John Hogg, 

 M.A., F.R.S., 4x., Norton, near Stockton, Dec. 13, 1859. 



Occurrence of the Sun-Fish at Sunderland. — On Thursday, 

 November 17, two Whitburn fishermen discovered a large sun- 

 fish asleep on the surface of the water, five miles out at sea. 

 They succeeded in getting the prize into the coble, and landed it 

 at ISunderland, where they have shown it for the last few days 

 at a small char^re. It measures four feet by two feet six inches, 



