Mr. Woods on the British Species of Bosa. 187 



observed one or two plants of this species at Pooley-Bridge in 

 Cumberland ; and again in 1814. At the latter time I likewise 

 gathered specimens from a plant in the neighbourhood of Kes- 

 wick : but as I have neither seen nor heard of it elsewhere, I 

 conclude it to be a rare plant. 



I can hardly have any doubt as to the correctness of the syno- 

 nym I have quoted. In the Rose figured in Engl. Bat. the prickles 

 on the stem, by their nutnber, scattered disposition, and slender- 

 ness, appear to indicate what I have called setae, or at least 

 the sn)all aculei approaching to set.t. This point established, 

 it must belong to the setigerons tribe; and we have only to 

 detern)ine between R. Doniana, II. gracilis, and R. Sahini. Un- 

 fortunately the large falcate prickles, the strongest character of 

 R. gracilis, are wanting: but this is a circumstance which I 

 conceive may occasionally occur in a single specimen; while on 

 the other hand the size and habit of the plant, the binate pe- 

 duncles, and the form of the calyx-leaves, induce mc to refer it 

 to this species rather than to either of the others, and the place 

 of its growth strengthens this supposition. I am much more con- 

 fident that the plant of Engl. Bot. is not the R. villosa of Linneeus, 

 or that of Hudson, or even of the Flora Britannica. The descrip- 

 tion "aculei caulini rariusculi" pointedly disagrees with the figure; 

 and all authors unite in attributing to R. villosa "aculei sparsi;" 

 and in this genus Linnaeus, from whom the term is borrowed, 

 opposes " sparsi" to " conferti," and uses it to express the com- 

 paratively small number of aculei. The term would therefore be 

 quite inapplicable to this plant and to the figure in Engl. Bot., sup- 

 posing, as would necessarily be the case, the setje (never before 

 distinguished from the aculei) to be included under the same 

 term. The figure of the fruit, in which the calyx is remarkably 

 compound, appears to have been drawn from a different plant, 



'■^ B 2 probably 



