210 ENGLISH BOTANY. 
SPECIES VIIL-ROSA RUBIGINOSA. Linn. 
Prats CCCCLXVIII. 
Baker, in Nat. 1864, p. 60. 
Prickles numerous, large, curved, rather unequal, intermingled 
with aciculi, and occasionally a few gland-tipped sete. Leaflets 
oval or roundish, doubly serrate, bright green, glabrous or sub- 
elabrous above, pale green hairy on the veins and thickly covered 
with sticky fragrant glands beneath. Pedicels short, with oval 
bracts, usually with aciculi and gland-tipped aciculi. Styles 
sparingly hairy. Fruit obovate-globose, rarely ovoid, scarlet 
when ripe. Sepals sub-persistent, leaf-pointed, usually pinnatifid, 
with numerous aciculi and gland-tipped setze on the back. 
In hedges, bushy places, and sandy sea-shores. Rather 
sparingly distributed from Cornwall, Devon, Hants, and Kent, to 
Aberdeen and Moray, though very probably not native in many 
of its stations. 
England, Scotland, Ireland. Shrub. Summer. 
An erect bush, from 2 to 4 feet high, with rather short compact 
branches. Leaflets small, somewhat shining above, very fragrant. 
Larger prickles sometimes 4 inch long, and much curved, smaller 
ones slender and nearly straight. Flowers about 17 inch in diameter, 
rose-colour. Fruit } to 2 inch in diameter, not ripening till 
October, by which time the sepals have generally fallen. 
A plant found by Mr. Baker at Swaledale, Yorkshire, has the 
calyx-tube ovoid-urceolate, and the glands on the under side of the 
leaves less numerous, thus showing an approach to R. micrantha. 
Common Sweetbriar, Hglantine. 
French, Rosier & Feuilles odorantes. German, Weinrose.’ 
Who does not know the Sweetbriar of our hedges, with its pretty pink roses and 
bright red fruits? It is prized alike in wild bouquets, in village gardens, and in the 
parterres of the wealthy. Poets have sung its praises, and in spite of its thorny stems, 
it is gathered for its sweet-smelling leaves. It bears clipping well, and makes a good 
hedge ; but Sir Walter Scott deprecates this practice, and says :— 
“ Cherish the tulip, prune the vine, 
But freely let the woodbine grow, 
And leave untrimm’d the eglantine.” 
Burns, the poet of nature, sings of the Sweetbriar in strains which, while writing of 
it, we cannot but quote :— ~ 
“Q bonnie was yon rosy brier, 
That blooms sae far frae haunt o’ men, , 
