By Joseph Sabine, Esq. 



461 



on both surfaces, which occasions thetn to appear altogether 

 of a darker hue ; they are also of a thicker substance, have 

 finer serratures, and are more inclined to bend back. The 

 flowers appear from the middle to the end of July, they are 

 less numerous, and generally weaker, but accord in all other 

 points. 



On comparing these details with those of Dr. Sims's de- 

 scription in the Botanical Magazine, they will be found 

 nearly to agree, except that he makes the germen of the Ayr- 

 shire Rose smooth. But his figure of the plant is altogether 

 incorrect ; the leaves are represented as rugose on the upper 

 surface and pale underneath, the germen is without setae, 

 and the sepals are without pinnae, and not reflexed. These 

 are all characters which belong to Rosa arvensis, and are 

 the chief marks which distinguish it from the Ayrshire Rose. 

 Is it not therefore possible that, by some accident, a branch 

 of the Rosa arvensis may have fallen into the hands of the 

 artist who drew the figure, for it cannot be conceived that 

 so many instances of want of essential correctness could 

 have occurred in copying the specimen received from the 

 plant at Spring Grove, and that I know to be the true 

 Ayrshire Rose. 



Dr. Sims has referred (with marks of doubt) the Ayr- 

 shire Rose to the Rosa repens of Jacquin's Fragmenta* and 

 to the same plant in Willdenow's Enumeration and in 

 Scopoli's Flora% of Carniola. But the Rosa repens of 

 Jacquin is described as having shoots only from two to four 

 feet long, which creep on the ground, throwing out roots as 

 they grow, and sending up short upright shoots, which bear 

 * Page 69, tab. 104. f Page 547. X Volume i. page 355. 



