45S 



On the Ayrshire Rose. 



son of the late Mr. George Don, of Forfar. To the ac- 

 counts both of Dr. Sims and of Mr. Neill, Mr. Lindley 

 has referred in his Rosarum Monographia,* under the heads 

 of Rosa arvensis and Rosa sempervirens. 



My opinions respecting the Ayrshire Rose do not entirely 

 coincide with those given in either of the publications I have 

 mentioned. Dr. Sims considered it as a variety of Rosa 

 arvensis, but his figure is certainly not that of the plant he 

 has described, and therefore is likely to lead to error. Mr. 

 Don, supposing it to be a distinct species, hitherto unde- 

 scribed, has named it Rosa capreolata : and Mr. Lindley 

 refers what he calls the true Ayrshire Rose to Rosa semper- 

 virens. I have some observations to make on all these 

 points, but it will be expedient first to give a description of 

 the Rose, and to detail the particulars in which it differs 

 both from Rosa arvensis and Rosa sempervirens. 



The Ayrshire Rose has slender branches, which grow 

 rapidly in one season to a very great extent (thirty feet and 

 upwards), but they are so weak as absolutely to require 

 support ; the older branches are greenish brown, with a few 

 small pale falcate aculei growing on them ; the younger 

 branches are green, with a tinge of purplish red, and armed 

 with falcate red aculei ; those branches which grow to any 

 extent are so slender and flexible as to hang down almost 

 perpendicularly from the last point to which they are nailed 

 or tied. The smaller side branches are very numerous, and 

 are abundantly covered with leaves, so as to form a thick 

 close mass ; the plant rarely throws up strong surculi, or root 

 shoots. The leaves are deciduous ; the stipulaj long and 



* Pages 112 and 117. 



