230 THE AYRSHIRE ROSE. 



readilv distinguished by being much more glossy and shining on 

 both surfaces, which occasions them to appear altogether of a darker 

 hue ; they are also of a thicker substance, have finer serralnres, and 

 are more inclined to bend back. The flowers appear from the mid- 

 dle to the end of July, they are less numerous, and generally weaker, 

 but accord in all other points 



The character given of the Ayrshire Rose by Mr. David Don, in 

 Mr. Neill's paper in the Edinburgh Philosophical Magazine, agrees 

 well with the plant ; but it is not sufficiently extended to distinguish 

 it from R. sempervirens. As compared with R. arvensis, he describes 

 the leaves of that species as ovate, and of the Ayrshire as elliptic, 

 and represents the fruit of R. arvensis as globose, with peduncle, 

 nearly smooth, whilst the Ayrshire Rose has ovate fruit and glandi- 

 ferous peduncles. I am not aware that the R. arvensis has ever been 

 found with peduncles approaching to smoothness, and therefore sup- 

 pose that the description was made from a plant late in the autumn ; 

 for when the fruit approaches maturity the setae drop ofF the pe- 

 duncles, and leave them nearly smooth. Mr. Neill, though he con- 

 siders the Ayrshire Rose nearly allied to the R. arvensis, seems to 

 suspect that it may be the Rosa prostrata of De Candolle ; but that 

 plant, according to the description of it in the works referred to, has 

 a nearer resemblance to R. sempervirens; it is besides a weak grow- 

 ing shrub, and has its flowers usually solitary and not in cymes. 



Mr. Neill states that the seeds from whence the Ayrshire Rose was 

 obtained were part of a packet received from Canada or Nova Scotia, 

 and it appears by his account, that several plants of it were produced 

 together. Mr. Douglas further mentions, that a person, under the 

 direction of Dr. Hope of Edinburgh, was sent to Canada to collect 

 hardy plants and their seeds, for several noblemen and gentlemen in 

 Scotland, who defrayed the expense of the collection by subscription, 

 and that the Ayrshire Rose was raised, in 1768 or 1769, from seeds 

 in the Earl of Loudon's share of the produce of this mission. 



No Rose having the slightest resemblance to the Ayrshire, or to 

 which it can possibly be assimilated, has been brought to us, or de- 

 scribed, from the American continent ; and as we are tolerably well 

 acquainted with the plants of the northern part of that country, it 

 may, I think, be safely alleged, that the seeds could not have been 

 those of an indigenous Rose of America. 



Mr. Lindley is perfectly correct, in his notice of the Ayrshire 

 Rose, in observing that two sorts have been cultivated and sold in the 

 nurseries under that name ; the fact is, that one of these is the com- 

 mon R. arvensis, and agreeing, as I have before stated, so exactly 



