By Joseph Sabine, Esq. 



found growing naturally wild any where, so as to enable us 

 to treat it as a species, or as one of those varieties of ascer- 

 tained species which, from their not being traceable to a 

 single original, but being abundant in the districts where 

 they are found, I consider as a higher class of variation, or 

 as sub-species of a well defined type. If, as is mentioned 

 above, several plants of it were raised together, we have 

 still to look for its parent, which would probably agree with 

 it, if several of its seeds produced similar plants ; but it does 

 not seem certain that more than one plant was first produced, 

 and it may consequently be considered as an accidental 

 variety, referable either to R. arvensis, or R. sempervirens. 



The Rosa arvensis is a very rare plant in Scotland, and 

 does not, as I am informed, grow wild in Ayrshire, therefore 

 no seed of that species could have come by chance from a 

 native plant, to give it being ; nor is it very likely that Rosa 

 sempervirens, which, even in the south of England, is a 

 tender plant, would have freely ripened its seeds in the cli- 

 mate of Scotland, so as to have casually produced the young 

 plant there. I therefore consider it more probable that the 

 new Rose did actually originate in the garden at Loudon 

 Castle, from some seed transmitted to, or collected for, the 

 Earl of Loudon ; and I think that the seed must have been 

 that of Rosa sempervirens, which if it was really imported 

 from America, must have been the produce of a garden 

 plant, since the species is exotic in that country. 



The Ayrshire Rose certainly has more affinity to R. sem- 

 pervirens than to R. arvensis, the inflorescence especially 

 accords exactly, the chief differences being that the leaves of 

 the Ayrshire Rose are deciduous, and that it flowers a little 



