382 Ancient History of the Rose. 



the impress of a man's foot. Theophrastus, who also men- 

 tions this rose, says it bore fruit of a red colour. Dioscorides 

 agrees with this account, and says the fruit resembles the nu- 

 cleus of an olive. Pliny, however, states that this plant bears 

 a black berry ; which, Bodaeus a Stapel remarks, no other author 

 has mentioned, and considers that the passage in Pliny refers 

 to another plant, subsequently mentioned by that author. 

 Among the thorns of the stem of the Rosa sylvestris grew a 

 round sponge-like substance, resembling a chestnut; the presence 

 of this excrescence upon this kind of rose is also mentioned by 

 Marcellus, an old writer on materia medica. Pliny says it 

 grew particularly upon the cynorhodon, and that it contained a 

 worm or grub which produced the insects called cantharides. 

 The same insects are mentioned by Aristotle to issue from a 

 worm found upon the xuvaxavflvj, or " dog-briar " (?). In the 

 spongy substance alluded to, we recognise the moss-like prickly 

 excrescences which are found upon all rose trees, but especially 

 upon the _R6sa canina, and which are the habitations of the 

 insect called Cynips rosae. 



Commentators on Pliny regard the R. sylvestris of this author 

 to be the R. Eglanteria of Linnaeus, now the R. rubiginosa, 

 which, according to Fries, Linnaeus for a long time referred to 

 the species R. canina. The cynorhodon of Theophrastus, the 

 cynosbaton and oxyacantha of Dioscorides, the cynacantha of 

 Aristotle, and the R. sylvestris, cynorhodon, cynosbaton, cynapan- 

 xim, and neurospaston of Pliny have been generally considered 

 as identical. There still appear, however, to have been some 

 doubts upon this point, which are not yet satisfactorily explained. 

 It would be uselessly occupying space, to enter at length upon 

 the consideration of this question. The R. sylvestris appears 

 to have obtained its synonyme, R. canina or cynorhodon, from 

 a supposition that its root was a beneficial remedy for bites of 

 mad dogs ; an instance of its curative powers is cited by Pliny. 



The roses mentioned by Theophrastus are few in number, 

 when compared with the list given by Pliny: four only are 

 enumerated, viz. — 



1. 'PoSov 7T£VTa<$>uAAa. 3. 'P. hxo(rct<pvX\a. 



2. 'P. SwSsxacfjuAAa. 4. 'P. exa.TOVTtx$v\ka. 



The first of these is considered by Stackhouse to have been 

 the same as the .Rosa canina of Linnaeus * ; the second has 

 not been referred to any species with which we are at present 

 acquainted ; the third is thought to resemble the R. cinnamo- 

 mea; and of the fourth, or hundred-leaved rose, Theophrastus 

 says, " The inner petals are exceedingly small; for the blossom- 



* Illustrationes Theophrasti, &c. Auctore J. Stackhouse. Oxon. 1711. 



