30 BOTANICAL GAZETTE [JULY 
ROSA GYMNOCARPA Nutt. 
R. gymnocarpa Nutt. presents an appearance and distinctive 
characters which never permit it to be confused with any other 
American species. Its stem, branches, and floriferous branchlets 
are habitually clothed with scattered prickles which are very 
slender, setaceous and very numerous ; only in rare cases are the 
branches and branchlets entirely unarmed. In vigorous and 
slender bushes, at the extremity of the axes the prickles become 
more sparse and beneath some leaves appear more or less regu- 
larly paired; but that is a simple accident which may happen 
in the other CINNAMOME with normally scattered prickles. 
Its leaflets are remarkably thin, with teeth richly glandular- 
compound, the lower surface glabrous and the midrib with quite 
large glands, which very rarely extend to some of the lateral 
veins. As to their form and dimensions, the leaflets are very 
variable ; they are very small or quite large, elliptical, oval- 
elliptical, oval, or oval-suborbicular ; the base is often rounded, 
and quite rarely attenuate. 
Watson has described, under the name of variety pudescens, 
some specimens obtained in the Sierra Nevada by Asa Gray, 
and in Silver mountains by Brewer. It is really that form with 
finely pubescent leaves. Does it appear specifically distinct 
from RK. gymnocarpa? Not having seen it I am not able to 
express a competent opinion upon it, as upon another form 
observed by Watson in Montana with corolla two inches if 
diameter instead of very small. 
In &. gymnocarpa the inflorescences are habitually one-flow- 
ered, rarely many-flowered. The corolla is remarkably small, 
its diameter not exceeding 20™. The very slender pedicels 
are often glandular-hispid, more rarely smooth. 
As yet I have always seen the receptacles smooth, but they 
may be expected to be sometimes glandular-hispid. The fruc- 
tiferous ones are generally very small, habitually ovoid, rarely 
globular, and produce a very small number of akenes. 
This species presents a character peculiar to it, at least in 
America. The receptacles, before complete maturity, are cut off 
