232 THE AYRSHIRE ROSE. 



sempervirens I therefore propose to place it, considering it to be a 

 deciduous and free growing variety of that species ; in order to pre- 

 serve Mr. Don's name, it may be called Rosa sempervirens capreo- 

 lata. 



If a comparison be made of the Ayrshire Rose with Rosa arvensis, 

 in the state we usually find it, the differences between them are so 

 numerous that there cannot be a doubt about the propriety of sepa- 

 rating them. But there are varieties of Rosa arvensis in which some 

 of these differences are often less apparent, or altogether assimilated. 

 For an acquaintance with these varieties I am indebted to Mr. Wil- 

 liam Borrer, with whom I have had an opportunity of personally ex- 

 amining them in their native habitats in Sussex. Rosa arvensis in 

 accidental varieties has sported very much, and has produced some 

 particularly ornamental plants ; but those I am now about to mention 

 are not single productions, they are found growing wild in various 

 places unconnected with each other. Of these the first variety has 

 the fruit slightly covered with sette, but does not differ in any other 

 character from the common Rosa arvensis. In the second, the leaves 

 are elongated, and sharply pointed, and the fruit is also elongated. 

 The third accords with the second, except that the fruit of it is 

 slightly hispin. The fourth has many peculiarities, it is far less ro- 

 bust than the common sort, having weak shoots, which are conse- 

 quently verv pendant, and the joints do not grow straight but in a 

 zig-zag manner ; the foliola are smaller, less rugose, flatter, rather 

 bending hack, and shining on the upper surface ; below they have 

 the glaucousness of the type, though less of it, and somewhat shi- 

 ning ; the flowers grow mostly singly, sometimes in cymes, but very 

 seldom in great numbers. The first and third of these varieties agree 

 with the Ayrshire Rose in the hispid fruit ; the second and third in 

 their lengthened leaves and elongated fruits ; but they have no other 

 peculiar points of accordance. When I first heard of the fourth va- 

 riety, I expected we had got the Ayrshire Rose in a wild state ; its 

 weak and pendant branches, and the shining quality of the foliola en- 

 couraged the opinion, hut the flexuose habit of its shoots, their short- 

 ness of extent, and the difference in the leaves, though approxima- 

 ting, overthrew my hope. 



In the cultivation and management of the Ayrshire Rose there is 

 little difficulty ; layers of its shoots root easily, and it strikes readily 

 from cuttings. When placed in good soil it grows so rapidly, that 

 by the second summer, the planter, if he wishes to cover a consider- 

 able space with its branches, will be gratified by the attainment of 

 his object." — Horticultural Transactions. 



