ON A NEW FORM OF ROSA TOMENTOSA WOODS. 



841 



une 



the middle of the fl. -shoot, its hairs, setse and aciculi many, unequal; 



sep 



the f\ 



R. G. 26. The Its. are all imbricate, and rather rough beneath. 

 Pet. pink. Starn. incurved, exceeding styles. Heaths." With this 

 may be compared the following translation of Dr. Focke's recently 

 published description of R. badius (among his Adenophori) : — " St. 

 sparsely hairy, red-brown, with unequal prickles shortly subulate 

 from a broad base. L. as in B. fusco-ater , but the stalks of the Its. 

 shorter. Inflorescence compound ; rachis densely hairy, glandular, 

 with unequal prickles. Pet. pink. Stam. overtopping styles. Partly 

 recalling R.fasco-ater, partly forms of the R. nemorosus group." 

 I follow Prof. Babington in placing this after R. Koehleri. 



(To be continued.) 



ON A NEW FORM OF ROSA TOMENTOSA Woods. 



By Edmund G. Baker, F.L.S. 



During a recent excursion from West Malvern, my attention 

 was drawn to a rose, which, unless carefully studied in its different 

 stages of growth in a living state, might easily be mistaken for 

 Rom mollis Sm. It has the suberect growth and the intensely 

 downy leaves, in fact it has the habit of growth and foliage, of 

 mollis; but differs from the true plant in its fruit, which is smaller, 

 and ripens later ; and in its sepals, which are more compound, not 

 connivent, and not completely persistent. I strongly suspect that 

 this is the rose which has often been mistaken for mollis in the 

 middle and southern counties of England, and indeed it would be 

 absolutely impossible to distinguish dried specimens in an early 

 stage of growth from true mollis. As its alliance is clearly with R. 

 tomentosa Woods, rather than with mollis, and as it apparently is 

 undescribed, I have ventured to give it a varietal name. 



Rosa tomentosa var. pseudomollis mihi. — Stem short, suberect ; 

 prickles slightly or sometimes decidedly curved; leaves intensely 

 downy, covered with grey pubescence, with hardly any glands on 

 the under surface, doubly serrated ; pedicels straight, hispid ; fruit 

 subglobose or ellipsoidal, not ripening in midland counties till end 

 of September ; three sepals more or less pinnately divided ; sepals 

 not leafy at point, glandular on the back, spreading, deciduous. 



Hab. On the ridge of Wenlock limestone that rims parallel to 

 the Malvern Hills, opposite to West Malvern, in the counties of 

 Herefordshire and Worcestershire. 



This plant was associated with R. micrantha, R. tomentosa and 

 its var. scabriuscula, R. arvensis, and R. cavina. It differs from 

 typical tomentosa in its suberect habit, intensely pubescent leaves, 

 and more persistent sepals. My father tells me he has seen the 

 same form in Oxfordshire ; and in the Herbarium of the Natural 

 History Museum, South Kensington, there is a plant gathered by 



