188 BUDS AND STIPULES 



Rosa berberifolia, or, adopting the earlier name, 

 R. persica, has been the subject of much difference of 

 opinion as to presence or absence of stipules. The 

 leaves are thus described by Ledebour : * Foliis abortu 

 nullis, stipulis connatis foliiforrnibus glabris.' Focke, 

 however, who has recently elaborated the Rosacece for 

 Engler's ' Pflanzenfamilien,' describes them as simple, 

 without distinction (Ausgliederung) of stipules and 

 leaflets. We have, in fact, an interesting exception 

 to the universal stipulate character of the family in this 

 species, which has simple, subsessile leaves. The 

 stem is prickly, and the frequent occurrence of the 

 prickles, sometimes in pairs, at the base of the leaf has 

 led to their description as stipules ; for instance, by 

 Boissier in his great ' Flora Orientalis.' Its exceptional 

 character has twice led to its separation from Rosa as a 

 distinct genus first by Dumortier, in 1824, who called 

 it Hulthemia ; and secondly by Lindley, who gave a 

 figure in the 'Botanical Register,' tab. 1261 (1829), 

 under the name Loviea, with the following remarks : 

 c It is time that botanists should disembarrass themselves 

 of this ancient prejudice ' (against using organs of 

 vegetation to supply generic characters), ' and admit 

 publicly that by which they are constantly influenced 

 in private that important modifications of the organs of 

 vegetation are sufficient to divide into genera species which 

 do not essentially differ in the organs of fructification.' 

 Boissier keeps up the generic distinction, but Bentham 



