422 ROSA 



R. CAN IN A, Linnaus. DOG ROSE. 



A strong-growing shrub, from 6 to 12 ft. high ; stems armed with scattered 

 prickles which are uniform, hooked, with no mixture of smaller bristle-like 

 ones. Leaflets five or seven, ovate, oval, usually simply toothed and glabrous, 

 sometimes downy and doubly toothed. Flowers fragrant, white or pinkish, 

 in clusters ; two of the sepals are usually entire, two pinnately lobed on both 

 margins, and one similarly lobed on one margin only. Fruit egg-shaped or 

 roundish, bright red, with the sepals fallen away or remaining until the fruit 

 changes colour. 



The dog rose in one or other of its forms is spread over most of the 

 cooler parts of Europe and W. Asia. It is naturalised in N. America. In 

 the British Isles it is one of the commonest and most beautiful of wild shrubs, 

 giving to English country lanes one of their sweetest and most characteristic 

 charms. For this reason the dog rose is out of place in the trim garden 

 where so many other roses with a richer beauty compete for room. The 

 curiously diverse form of the sepals furnishes the answer to an old-time 

 Latin riddle translated thus : 



Five brothers of one house are we, 

 All in one little family, 

 Two have beards and two have none, 

 And only half a beard has one. 



Of all roses the dog rose is the most diverse and varied in its characters. 

 It may be taken as the type of a group of numerous forms ranging in import- 

 ance from sub-species to minor varieties. Most of these are not of sufficient 

 importance in a garden sense to need mention here, but the following more 

 striking ones may be alluded to : 



Var. ANDEGAVENSIS, Baker. Leaflets smooth on both surfaces and with- 

 out glands; flower-stalks and base of calyx-tube with .numerous glandular 

 bristles. 



Var. ARVAT1CA, Baker. Leaflets smooth above, paler, hairy, and glandular 

 on the veins beneath ; doubly toothed ; flower-stalk smooth. 



Var. BAKERI. Leaflets slightly hairy above, very downy and more or 

 less glandular beneath ; flower-stalks short, smooth or slightly bristly, 

 Closely allied to this is var. TOMENTELLA, Baker. 



Var. CVESIA. A glaucous variety ; leaflets smooth above, downy beneath ; 

 flower-stalks with numerous bristles. 



Var. CORIIFOLIA, Baker. Leaflets broadly ovate, stout, very downy but 

 not glandular beneath, dull and slightly hairy above ; flower-stalks very short. 



Var. DUMETORUM, Baker (R. dumetorum, Thuillter). Chiefly distin- 

 guished from ordinary canina by the dull grey hue and the downy character 

 of its leaflets, without glands beneath ; flower-stalks smooth. Often regarded 

 as a distinct species. 



Var. LUTETIANA, Baker. Leaflets smooth on both sides ; flower-stalks 

 short and smooth. 



Var. SUBCRISTATA, Baker. Fruit with erect sepals adhering until the 

 fruit is ripe ; leaflets glaucous green and smooth ; flower-stalk smooth. 



R. dAROLINA, Linnceus. 



A shrub 4 to 6 ft. high, with crowded, erect stems forming dense thickets ; 

 prickles hooked or straight, usually in pairs at the base of the leaf. Leaves 

 3 or 4 ins. long, with generally seven leaflets, which are dull green above, 

 grey beneath, narrowly oval, ovate or obovate, i to TL\ ins. long, one-third as 

 wide, finely and simply toothed, more or less downy"beneath. Flowers 2 to 



