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I gathered at Orcop last year, and submitted to Mr. Baker’s judgment: and 
Mr. Purchas reports well marked plants of this variety from near Backney and 
from the Doward. 
(q) Ceesia. This Rose is a recent, and very interesting addition to our 
County Flora, due to the diligence of Mr. Towndrow. The neighbourhood of 
Malvern seems to rejoice in an abundant and interesting set of Roses, which 
Mr. Towndrow is now working. Among them is one upon which Mr. J. G. Baker 
writes as follows: ‘‘The Rose does excellently well for a form of Smith’s cesta. 
I have seldom seen the figure in English Botany so well illustrated. I 
am glad to hear that the plant is not unfrequent, as it is an old type, very little 
known.” Mr. Towndrow’s specimens communicated to me are from Cowleigh 
park, and Colwall in Herefordshire. 
(s) Decipiens. I place this Rose upon our list on the faith of Mr. J. 
G. Baker, who so named for me a Rose picked near Eaton Bishop in 1874. At 
the same time, I must confess to being dissatisfied with the name, and should 
myself assign a place to the Rose among the varieties of tomentosa. It was 
confined to single bush, unfortunately since destroyed. 
We come now to a set of varieties of R. canina, the Sub-cristate, in which the 
calyx-segments, instead of becoming reflexed and dropping before the fruit ripens, 
rise over the fruit and become erect as it grows, and are persistent until it has 
turned colour; ultimately, however, falling before it softens. This habit gives a 
very peculiar aspect to the plants of this Section ; and the credit of first giving 
due prominence to this peculiarity as a basis of classification is due to Mr. J. G. 
Baker, whose admirable monograph of the British forms of this genus has done 
so much to render its study easier to younger Botanists. It is only to repeat what 
every student of plants knows, to remark that, prominent and well marked as 
this character is, it yet fails to give in every individual instance an available 
criterion of difference. Mr. Purchas tells me that intermediates between R. 
sub-cristata and ordinary dumalis, to which even Mr. Baker hesitates to assign a 
name, are common in his neighbourhood: and the same is undoubtedly true in 
Herefordshire. These stubborn individuals (the cruces of systematisers, but the 
delight of observers) teach us more about the secrets of nature than 100 which we 
can complacently label and put in their respective places. 
I do not know that we can select any other points in these Sub-cristate 
plants, in which, as a group, they exhibit marked differences of habit from 
ordinary canina. They are decidedly more rare in Herefordshire than the first 
group ; by possibly 500 to 1, or probably some still more unequal proportion. In 
North Staffordshire, and the Peak of Derbyshire, Mr. Purchas informs me, they 
are on the contrary the most frequent. We possess two, or perhaps three of the 
forms. 
(t) Reuteri. This fine Rose is rather rare, but at the same time widely 
distributed in Herefordshire; I have gathered it in many spots in the Central, 
Southern and Western Districts. 
(u) Sub-cristata. The remarks upon the last apply equally to the 
present variety. 
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