176 Mr. Woods on the British Species of Rosa. 



cient to distinguish this from every other British Piose ; indeed it 

 belongs to a family of which we have no other example in these 

 islands, distinguished principally by setose stems, straight prickles, 

 globose germens, entire calyx leafits, lanceolate or oblong leaflets, 

 and large distinct bractete. The setae and even the acuici are 

 very apt to be deficient on the upper part of the plant ; and in 

 this intricate genus it is necessary to examine the whole plant, 

 and even m.any individuals of the species wherever it is possible. 

 In all parts of the plant the setae are apt to fall off entirely ; but the 

 little papilli^, to which they were originally attached, are in general 

 observable. This family includes R. Banksice and R. hlanda, and 

 perhaps we may unite with it R. parvijlora, R. nitida, R. lucida, 

 R.gemella, R.Lyonii, R.setigera, R.caroliiiiatia, and R. caucasica, 

 of the catalogue in Rees's Cyclopaedia, to which I refer, as the 

 work of a botanist of the highest authority, and as the most com- 

 plete list of the genus hitherto published. I must, however, take 

 this opportunity to declare that my knowledge of the foreign 

 Roses is exceedingly slight and confined ; and that in this attempt 

 to mark the subdivisions of the genus, I have drawn my notions 

 of the plants almost entirely from the characters given in the 

 above-mentioned work. The object of these enumerations is to 

 make my ideas intelligible respecting the natural affinities of the 

 several species. In all this tribe the setae are deciduous, and the 

 aculei few and nearly equal, never passing by almost insensible 

 gradations into setae, as they do in Rosaspinosissima, R.involiita,Scc. 

 This plant having hitherto been observed only in one place in 

 these islands, I have no British varieties to enumerate. In coun- 

 tries where it is plentiful it varies very much in appearance, if 

 we may judge from the different names it has received, and the 

 discordant opinions as to what ought to be included in it as 

 varieties. 



2. Rosa 



