198 M)'. Woods on the British Species of Rosa, 



Common in hedges and bushy places throughout Great Bri- 

 tain. 



I rely iipnn the shape of the leaflet and the entire margin of the 

 petals, to distinguish this Rose from the R.villosa of the gardens, 

 whose petals are crenate, a character pointed out to me by 

 Mr. W. J. Hooker; and somewhat also on the smaller and less 

 globular fruit: on the bractese, and on the shape of the leaf- 

 lets, to separate it from H.heterophjlla : on the entire margin of 

 tJie petals, to mark it from R. pulchella ; and on the very pinnate 

 leafits of the calyx, to divide it from jR. villosa and R. scabvius- 

 ciila. The plant thus discriminated includes so many varieties, 

 or perliaps species, that it is certainly the most intricate of the 

 genus. It undoubtedly embraces the R. villosa of Hudson, and 

 the Rosa si/lvcstris pornifcra major nostras of Ray, which has usu- 

 ally been quoted as a synonym of R. villosa. I should also feel 

 confident that it included the Rosa villosa oi .i\\e Flora Britannica, 

 if the learned author had not assured me that that description 

 was drawn up from the plant commonly known under the name 

 of R. villosa in our gardens : — that, however, we have no reason 

 to suppose a native of this country, though perhaps in the present 

 state of our knowledge we should find it difficult to trace it to any 

 other. 



The characters proposed by British botanists to distinguish 

 R. villosa from R. tomentosa, viz. the small ovate fruit and hooked 

 prickles, do not by any means regularly go together. The size 

 and shape of the receptacle and fruit vary much, as may be 

 sufficiently seen in the ensuing catalogue of varieties ; and even 

 under that appearance from which I have drawn my descrip- 

 tion, indeed on the same bush, they may be observed large or 

 small, more or less elliptic, more or less covered with setae, or 

 quite naked- The average shape in a is however wider than in 



some 



