ROSA HIBERNICA. 83 
no sete ; branchlets with weak unequal prickles, some 
of which are very small; rootshoots rather setigerous, 
covered all over with much longer, but unequal prickles, 
some of which are hooked. Leaves like those of R. 
spinosissima sanguisorbifolia, but larger and more acute; 
leaflets generaliy 5, hairy beneath, especially at the 
rib, simply serrated. Flowers solitary, almost always 
without bractez ; peduncle, round tube of the calyx and 
sepals naked, the latter compound, reflexed after flower- 
ing: petals concave, emarginate; disk flat, conspicuous. 
fruit crowned with the sepals, deep dull red. 
It is more difficult to assign a situation for this, than 
for any other species of the genus. Its habit is when 
weak, like spinosissima; when more vigorous, like ca- 
nina; andif exceedingly luxuriant, like tomentosa mol- 
fis. It comes better into the character of the division 
where I have placed it than elsewhere, and may be con- 
sidered as a transition from Villose to Canine. Mr. 
Woods, with his usual acuteness, has selected as its 
most important character the mixture of small straight 
prickles on the branches, adding, “It is true that R. 
hibernica has this in common with rubiginosa; but the 
entire want of glands, tbe simple serratures and_ the 
shape of the fruit, render it impossible that any mistake 
should arise between them.” 
If this be not the most interesting, it is at least the 
most valuable of the genus ;—or, rather, was so to Mr. 
Templeton, who found it, as he became entitled to 
fifty pounds, offered as a premium by the patrons of 
Botany in Dublin, for the discovery of a new Irish 
lant. The neighbourhood of Belfast is the only part 
of the world in which it has yet been detected. 
