Mr. Woods on the British Species of liosa. 183 



know what Tiosa Dr. Afzclius means to indicate by the name of 

 li. pimpiiic/lifolia ; and still less is it possible to conjecture what 

 is the Rosa " germinibus ovatis," which was according to him 

 first confounded by Linnaeus with R. spinosissima, and afterwards 

 with that species blended into R. pimpinelUfoUa : but I have only 

 been aiile to procure the first, second, tliird, fifth, sixth, seventh, 

 eighth, ninth, and tenth of his Tentamina ; in the last of which he 

 resumes the consideration of this species, as described in the works 

 of the Swedish botanists previous to Linnaeus, and no further. Per- 

 haps, if I had been able to consult the eleventh Tentamen, 1 might 

 have found all ditficulties resolved. Be that as it may, the R. spi- 

 nosissima of the Linnaean Herbarium is certainly the English plant, 

 and no variety of R. cinnamomea. I can have therefore no doubt 

 in retaining the name, which would be very reluctantly transferred 

 to a plant almost without prickles or thorns. 



Willdenow describes R. pimpincllifoUa as distinct from R. spi- 

 nosissima ; as also does Gmelin, Fl. Bad. Als. ii. 415 : but I can- 

 not understand from either of them in what the difference con- 

 sists, except in the " aculei sparsi," which is the essential cha- 

 racter given by Linnaius, in opposition to the " aculei conferti" 

 of R. spinosissima, and is retained by both these authors. Dr. 

 Roth, FL Germ. i. 217, and ii. 556, seems to acknowledge his 

 inability to ascertain the ditference. 



4. Rosa involuta. 



R. ebracteata, caulibus setigeris, receptaculis globosis, foliolis du- 



plicato-serratis supra glabris, aculeis confertissimis. 

 R. involuta. FL Brit. 1398. Eiio-. Bat. xxix. t. 2068. 



■&• 



Fnilex erectus, 2 — 3-pedalis. Rami strict!, fusci, aculeis confertis, strictis, reclinatis vel 

 horizontaiiter patentibus, valde inaei|ualibus, tandem in setas immutatis, muniti. Pe- 

 tioli aculeis reclinatis instructi, glandulosi, sparsim pilosi. StifmlcB lineares, g4andu- 

 loso-ciliatae^ subaequales, sed interduni eae floribus propiores ceteris ali<|itantulum 



latiures. 



