326 



SAV'S ROSE. 



As the season advances and the temperature of 

 the water rises, tender water hlies in tubs are sunk 

 between the beds of hardy lilies, and this completes 

 the planting of the water garden, and when the 

 summer days have come, pink and lavender, red and 

 purple mingle with large white lilies, their leaves 

 overlapping, green and copper and brown, reaching 

 out to one another, commingling tropical splendor 



and fragrance with the chaste and sturdy beauty of 

 the temperate zone. Did ever the finny tribes dis- 

 port themselves in smoother water or more refresh- 

 ing shade, cast by dainty parasols that queens 

 might envy, but never possess ; made without hands, 

 yet fringed and fluted and perfumed in Nature's lab- 

 oratory, and exhaling their fragrance without stint 

 or pay ? 



SAY'S ROSE. 



Plate i. — Rosa Sayi, Schweinitz, Keat 



I\osa Sayils one of the most attractive of our na- 

 tive wild roses. Although first described so long 

 ago as 1825, it has not received much attention from 

 botanists, and evidently none from cultivators. In 

 fact, it has commonly been misunderstood, having 

 been referred to other species. In 1885 Sereno 

 Watson recharacterized it,* and separated it from 

 the arctic R. aciciilaris, to which it had been referred. 



The species belongs to that section of the genus 

 which is characterized by the sepals being some- 

 what united and persisting after the petals fall. 

 This section includes about a dozen western and 

 northern species, none of which are well known 

 among cultivators. One of the most conspicuous 

 marks of Rosa Sayi is the profusion of weak and 

 straight prickles upon the stems. Two closely allied 

 species possess a similar character, however — Rosa 

 Engcimanni and R. a7-kansana. Rosa Engelinanni 

 bears an oblong hip or fruit, while the hip of R. 

 Sayi is globular, as shown in the plate. From R. 

 a7'/cansana, Say's rose is distinguished, among other 

 things, by the broad stipules and obtuse base of the 

 fewer leaflets. 



Rosa Sayi was first collected by Long's expedition 

 to the Red River of the North, which was sent out 

 by John C. Calhoun in 1823. It was probably 

 found somewhere to the northwest of Lake Supe- ' 

 rior. It is now known to occur so far west as Col- 

 orado and to extend eastward into Michigan. The 

 writer collected it at several places in the "pine 



*Proc. Amer. Acad. Arts and Sci. XX, 340. 



ing in Long's Exped. App. 4, 113 (1825). 



plains" of Michigan in 1888, somewhat below the 

 45th parallel of latitude. It often grows upon the 

 sterile sand of the plains, forming a neat bush three 

 or four feet high, and bearing, in June, a profusion 

 of delicate, warm and showy flowers. In fact, it is 

 one of the most beautiful of our wild roses, and 

 there is no reason why it should not yield good re- 

 sults under cultivation. The flowers are two to two 

 and a half inches across, very open, and of a fresh 

 and delicate rose color. The foliage and habit are 

 attractive. 



Thomas Say, for whom this rose is named, was 

 one of the most noted of the early American natu- 

 ralists. He gave particular attention to entomology 

 and conchology. It is said that he discovered more 

 new species of insects than any man before him. 

 In 1812, at the age of twenty-five, he founded the 

 Philadelphia Academy of Sciences. In 1818 he 

 was connected with an exploration of the coasts and 

 islands of Georgia and eastern Florida. The next 

 year he joined Long's party to the Rocky mountains, 

 and in 1823 he was naturalist of the expedition to 

 the Red River of the North, when he collected the 

 rose which bears his name. In 1825 he joined 

 Robert Owen in the famous New Harmony settle- 

 ment in Indiana, where he died in 1834. From 

 1824-8 he published his Americaji Ejiioinology in 

 three volumes, and at New Harmony he published 

 seven volumes of his American Conchology., a work 

 which was never completed. Long after his death 

 his works were edited and republished. 



L. H. B. 



