ROSA BANKSIAE 
1-2 in. long, acute, simply serrated, green and glabrous on both surfaces; petioles 
naked ; stipules free, linear, deciduous. Flowers many, in an umbel ; pedicels 
naked. Calyx-tube small, globose, glabrous ; lobes ovate-acuminate, in. long, 
simple, glabrous on the back. Petals white or yellow, oblong, i in. long. Styles 
free, included, glabrous. Fruit globose, naked, the size of a large pea ; sepals 
deciduous. 
The Banksian Rose, first brought into Europe by Mr. Whlliam 
Kerr in 1807, was named by Robert Brown in Aiton’s Horhts 
Kezvensis in compliment to Lady Banks. It is one of the most distinct 
and at the same time one of the most beautiful species of Rose in 
cultivation. It is widely distributed in central and western China, 
ascending the mountains to a height of 5,000 feet, and was found by 
Siebold in Japan, but it is not generally admitted into the flora of 
Japan and was most probably introduced into that country from China. 
The Abbe Delavay found it growing plentifully m Yun-nan, and 
collected specimens in flower and in fruit on the Mu-so-yu Mountains. 
The Abbe David met with it in Shensi, and Potanin collected it in 
Kansu. Dr. Henry’s specimens were found in the provinces of Hupeh 
and Sze-chuan. It is abundant in the gorges of the Yangtse near 
Ichang, where it forms great hanging bushes. The single white form 
was collected in south Wushan. 
Dr. Henry says ^ that this Rose varies greatly in its external 
characters. The forms found in western China have small leaves 
with three hairy leaflets ; in central China the leaflets are glabrous, 
varying in size, and are often five in number. I n the southern pixwinces 
the leaflets are almost always glabrous and most frequently se\’en m 
number. In the cultivated plant there are nearly always fi\'e leaflets, 
the third pair rarely developing. The prickles are usually to be seen 
in the wild plant, but rarely in cultivated specimens. In Plupeh, where 
it is abundant, it is glabrous and always co\^ered with hooked prickles, 
generally wide at their base. There are usuall}^ five leaflets, rarel)’ 
three or seven ; these are more or less oval-lanceolate and serrated. 
The very characteristic stipules are formed by long hairs which fall 
early and are only seen on the flowering branches. The flowers are 
small, white or yellow, and sweet-smelling, arranged in false umbels, 
usually numerous but sometimes single. The specimens collected by 
the Abbe Delavay in southern China, and now at Kew, have se\’en 
leaflets which are mostly glabrous. P^ranchet, describing the same 
plant in flower, says that it has not always prickles, and that the leaflets, 
three or five in number, are covered with hairs on the median ner\'e 
and rarely on the peduncle and pedicels. In an article in the Chih- 
the Banksian Rose is described as a cultivated Rose with 
double flowers and fi\^e lanceolate leaflets. The writer says that the 
’ Card Chron. ser. 3, vol. x.xxi. pp. 438-9 (1902). 
Vol. xxi. p. 47 (1578). 
104 
