292 DR. J. W. HKSLOP HARRISON ON 



(5) R. pimpinellifolia X R. mollis. Plate IX. 



The example shown was obtained at Corbridge, North- 

 umberland, on July i6th, 1919. Even at that early date its 

 fruits were reddening and contained an adequate stock of 

 perfect seeds. The early ripening is in itself enough to 

 determine the mollis parent, because that species exhibits its 

 array of cernuous crimson globes weeks before its allies of the 

 Tomentosa and Villosa sections. Even were this not so, the 

 neighbouring bushes were practically all macrophyllous R. 

 mollis which the hybrid resembles strongly in fruit, foliage and 

 prickles. The central plant was linked up by underground 

 stems with other clumps covering nearly a score of yards of a 

 steep bankside. 



On paper, the bushes fall under Rosa Sabi/ii. but since that 

 name covers hosts of crosses between R. pimpinellifolia and 

 the Villosa and Tomentosa allies, it is quite an unsatisfactory 

 designation. 



(6) R. pimpinellifolia X R. mollis {^'om Norway). Plate XV. B. 



Compared with the bulk of the British examples resulting 

 from the same crossing, the most peculiar point about these 

 Norwegian specimens is the preponderatingly microphyllous 

 character of which the photograph gives an excellent notion. 

 Although I possess about 40 examples selected from as many 

 bushes, the majority depart but slightly from the plant in tht* 

 figure. Its most noteworthy characters are its fertile seeds, 

 rounded leaflets, long setose peduncles, prickly fruit, the 

 strongly bipinnate pair of sepals and the strong reddish 

 coloration of stems, petals, bracts and sepals, the latter 

 feature recalling certain varieties o{ R. mollis. Furthermore, 

 attention must be directed to tlie enormous and fairly regular 

 ■development of the prickles of the main stem, as well as to the 

 half-opened flowers, which caused Smith to apply the name 

 involuta to parallel forms. This trick of exhibiting half- 

 expanded blossoms is not universal; most that I have studied 

 behaved quite normally. 



