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OBSERVATIONS ON THE DIFFERENT METHODS PROPOSED 

 FOR THE CLASSIFICATION OF THi; SPECIES OF THE 

 GENUS ROSA, Lin. 



By Mons. Alfred Deseglise. 



Linneus knowing but 14 species of Roses ^ took for the basis of 

 his divisions of the genus Rosa the form of the fruit: 1st Globose; 2nd 

 OvaP : quite secondary characters, but which might be admissible at the 

 period when this great legislator of the natural sciences brought out his 

 Species Plantarum. This division has since been adopted by several 

 authors. I shall endeavour to give a rapid sketch of the different clas- 

 sifications proposed by eminent botanists, in order to point out the much 

 to be regretted confusion which reigns in these various methods. The 

 imperfect knowledge we even yet possess of numerous species of Roses, 



(1) I speak here only of the species described in the Species plantarum (1764); 

 for the herbarium of Linneus, preserved in the rich botanical galleries of the 

 Linnean Society of London, contains 50 specimens of roses, almost all in a good 

 state of preservation : there are about 30 European species, the half of which are 

 ticketed on the sheet by the hand of Linneus himself. Generally there is only the 

 name given, sometimes a note as well : amongst others, a great number are from 

 Jacquin, and are accompanied by tickets, containing numerous notes and remarks on 

 the sheet ; two or three bear tickets from a French correspondent of Linneus, (Du 

 Koi ?) : there are also on some sheets notes in pencil by Sir J. E. Smith. I ara 

 indebted for these details to the kindness of Mr J. G. Baker, of Thirsk, and have 

 pleasure in taking this opportunity of repeating my thanks for the generosity with 

 which he placed at my service the Roses of England, accompanied by numerous notes 

 and observations, for the purpose of making a comparison between the French Ro.ses 

 and the types preserved in the Herbarium of Linneus. 



(2) The term oval, when used to distinguish the form of the fruit, seems to me 

 to be vicious. This word can only be applied to plane surfaces, as a leaf for example, 

 and not to a solid as a calyx-tube or a fruit. I think we ought at once to admit four 

 types of fruit : — 1st, Globose; 2nd, Ovoid, which, like tlie egg from which it derives its 

 name, is broader at the base than at the summit : (the greater proportion of authors 

 have no doubt used the term oval in the sense of ovoid) ; 3rd, Ohovoid, the inverse of 

 ovoid, i.e. broader at the summit than at the base ; 4th, Ellipsoid, as bi'oad at one end 

 as at the other, since taking the form of the ellipse as having both extremities identical 

 in size, we should never have broad and narrow extremities. These forms once 

 admitted, we might indicate in each species how they vary ; thus we should speak of 

 a globose fruit depressed at the summit or at the base; elongated ellipsoid fruit, 

 rounded or pointed at each end ; ovoid, elongated or attenuated at the summit, &c. 



No. 18, Jan. 2. T 



