ROSA ARVHNSIS 
bmcfs lanccohite. Calyx-iiibe turbinate; hbes short, ovate, not leaf-pointed, naked 
on the back, the outer with 1-2 small linear lobes. Petals large, j)ure white. Styles 
glabrous, forming a column considerably exserted beyond the very conical disc. 
h'ntit small, subglobose or broadly ovoid, dark red, not ripening till October; 
sepals deciduous. 
This well-marked species extends over central and southern 
luirope, from Spain and Britain to Greece. It is not mentioned by 
l urner or Lobel, but was noticed by Caspar Bauhln in 1623^ under 
the name of “ Rosa arvensis Candida.” It is contained in Buddie’s 
herbarium, made late in the seventeenth century, and is called by Ray^ 
“ Rosa sylvestris altera minor flore albo nostra.” Linnaeus only knew 
it from Iludson’s description, and there is no specimen in his herbarium. 
"Fhis Rose, the most beautiful of all our English wild Roses, is 
readily known by its snow-white flowers, more cup-shaped than those of 
any of our other wild Roses, by its styles united in a smooth prominent 
column, surrounded by a halo of golden stamens, and by the rambling 
habit of its long slender stems, which trail along the ground unless 
they encounter some object which encourages the branches to ascend. 
It is widely distributed throughout England, and is abundant in the 
southern counties, becoming scarcer as it goes north, and, though it 
ranges through Chevlotland to the Grampians, it is very rare north of 
the Tweed. \\ ith its wreaths of snowy bloom, its deep green foliage 
and purple, glaucous stems, it is one of the most beautiful objects of 
our Enoflish hedejerows at midsummer. 
The Ayrshire Roses, amongst the most popular of our climbing 
Roses, originated from Rosa arvensis. Among them are Queen of the 
Belgians, Alice Gray, Dundee Rambler, and many others very generally 
grown for wreathing arches and pillars and covering walls. They are 
not only beautiful, but have the additional advantages of being abso- 
lutely hardy, and at the same time the strongest growing and most 
floriferous of all our garden Roses. 
Rosa arvensis has also made many good natural hybrids with 
Rosa gallica L., Rosa canina L. and others. At Charbonnieres, near 
L> ’ons, there is a whole series of these interesting hybrids which have 
been named and described by the Abbe Boullu and others. 
This Rose is figured by Andrews (vol. i. t. i). 
^ Pinax, p. 484. ^ Historia, vol. ii. p. 1471 (1688). ' 
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