292 THE NATURALIST. 



OBSERVATIONS ON THE DIFFERENT METHODS PROPOSED 

 FOR THE CLASSIFICATION OF THE SPECIES OF THE 

 GENUS ROSA, Lin. 



By Mons. Alfred Deseglise. 



f Continued from page 276 J 



Teattinick, " Monographia rosacearum" (1823-4), divides the 234 

 species described in his monograph into 24 series, in which it is very diffi- 

 cult to know what one is doing, from the confusion which reigns among 

 them, and the secondary characters which he makes use of to establish 

 his series ; many of them include but one or two species, or the same 

 series may comprise roses with simj^le or compound flowers. 



DuMOETiER, " Notice sur un nouveau genre de j^lctJites : Hidthemia.'* 

 (1824), proposes to class the different species of Rosa according to the 

 state of the disk, and divides the Roses of Belgium into four sections, 

 which three years later (1827) he reproduces in his Florida Belgica. If 

 his second and fourth sections seem natural on account of the species they 

 include, what shall we say of the third, which contains R. Galllca, L., R. 

 lutea, Mill., R, rubiginosa, L., R. tomentosa, Smith, Rk canina, L., and R. 

 rubrifolia, Vill. What analogies can be found to unite in the same group 

 these widely differing species ? 



Seringe having been requested in 1827 to describe the species of the 

 genus Rosa in the Prodromus of De CandoUe, divided the 103 species 

 admitted by him for the whole world into four sections, rejecting the 

 classification he proposed in 1818 in his Musee Helvetiqiie, and to which 

 De Candolle was probably a stranger. Section i. Synstylj^ established 

 by De Candolle in 1813. ii. Chinenses. The species of this section are 

 foreign to Europe, iii. CinnamomT<:js. " Styli liberi inclusi raro exserti. 

 Sepala integerrima raro subpinnatisecta post anthesim, saepe conniventia. 

 Stipulse nullse cum foliis 1-foliolatis, aut adnse cum foliis plurijugis. 

 Aculei stipulares gemini raro nulli vel irregulares. Fructus globosi vel 

 globoso-depressi." Seringe in De C. Prod. ii. p. 002.'' It is in this section 

 that Seringe places jR. herberifoUa, Pall., a singular species, which, if it 

 ought not to be separated from the Roses proper, (Dumortier in 1824 



(7) This section comprises the Pimpinellifoliae, Gallicanse, and Hebecladje of the 

 Mu84e Helvetique. 



