ROSACE.E. 203 



numerous, enclosed in the fleshy or cartilaginous calyx-tube, bony, 

 liairy at the side opposite the style. 



Shrubs, often prickly. Leaves pinnate, with few pairs of pinnae : 

 stipules adnata to the petiole. Flowers large, terminal, solitary or 

 several in a simple corymbose or umbellate cyme.* 



The name of this well-known genus of plants is one which is adopted into most 

 modern languages of Europe. It evidently comes from the Greek word pncor (rodon), 

 red ; and the rose of the ancients was undoubtedly one of a deej) crimson colour, 

 which probably suggested the table of its springing from the blood of Adoois. 



Section I.— SPINOSISSIM^E. 



Rather low bushes, plentifully stoloniferous, with erect or slightly 

 arching stems, with the branches mostly short ; shoots with the 

 prickles very numerous, crowded, unequal, passing gradually into 

 aciculi, and having a greater or less number of gland-tipped seta-. 

 Leaves glabrous or slightly hairy, with few or no glands. Styles 

 not united. Fruit mostly subglobosc, with truly persistent sepals. 



SPECIES I.— ROSA SPINOSISSIMA. Linn. 



Plate CCCCLXI. 

 £ahr, in Nat. 1864, p. 15. 



Prickles much crowded, slender, nearly straight, spreading, very 

 unequal, passing gradually into aciculi and gland-ti2)ped setae. 

 Leaflets t roundish or oval, obtuse, siuiply and equally serrated, 

 glabrous and Avithout glands on both sides. Pedicels solitary and 

 without bracts, mostly glabrous. Fruit erect, subglobose, rarely 

 ovoid, glabrous or rarely prickly at base, purplish-black when mature, 



• In this dilBcult genus I have followed Mr. J. G. Baker in liis valuable papers 

 on the Hoses of the North of England, publishing in the "Naturalist," of wiiich. imw- 

 ever, the whole series is not yet in print ; but Mr. Baker has kindly fiirni.slieil me 

 with his manuscripts on the subject. I have followed his arrangement, not having 

 j)iiid that special attention to the genus which he has bestowed upon it ; though, had 

 I felt justified in following my own bias, I incline towards Mr. Beuthani's views of the 

 geiins. It seems to me that we have not more than five or si.\ sjiecies or supor-species 

 of British Eoses ; but combination of sub-species into super-species can be saldy ven- 

 tured upon only by those intimately acquainted with all the minute differences which 

 distinguish the forms which are to be combined. 



For reasons similar to those given in the note on the genus Rubus, it has becD 

 considered advisable to give plates of the more conspicuous forms only. 



t The shape of the leaflets is described from the terminal one throughout the 

 whole of the genus Rosa. 



