ROSA RUBRIFOLIA 
slightly setose. Calyx-tube globose, naked ; lobes with a long point, simple or 
slightly compound, naked on the back. Petals middle-sized, bright red. Styles 
free, included. Fruit small, subglobose, naked, red and pulpy, ripening in Sep- 
tember ; sepals deciduous. 
Rosa rubrifolia is distributed from the mountains of central 
France to the Pyrenees and southern Austria. It is nearly allied to 
Rosa canina L., but may be distinguished from that species by its 
very glaucous red-tinted foliage, small globose fruit, and usually simple 
sepals. There is a variety, livida Host, with lurid, dark-coloured 
foliage, and a variety, pubescens Koch, in which the leaves are slightly 
pubescent beneath. Rosa rubrifolia was introduced into England 
early in the nineteenth century. 
It is a very striking Rose, whether on its native mountains or in 
the garden. In Switzerland it rarely attains a height of more than 
five feet, but in English gardens sometimes reaches ten feet. It 
prefers partial shade, and in the Alps plants growing in a northern 
aspect are much better coloured and more vigorous than those which 
are exposed to the south. 
The name Rosa ferruginea Vill . 1 was discarded by Villars himself, 
who substituted for it the name rubrifolia : In Grenier et Godron, 
Flore de France , Rosa ferruginea is not mentioned. Grenier does 
not give it in his Flore Jurassique. D^s^glise 3 keeps the name. 
Rouy 4 does not admit it, neither does Christ, nor Crepin. Keller 5 
says that Villars’ Rosa ferruginea is not the same as his Rosa rubrifolia. 
1 Fl. Delph. p. 46 (1779). 
* Hist. PL Dauph. vol. iii. p. 549 (1789). 
3 Bull. Soc. Bot. Belg. vol. xv. p. 291 (Cat. Rais. Ros. p. 122 [1877]) (1876). 
4 Fl. Fr. vol. vi. p. 341 (1900). 
5 In Ascherson & Graebner, Syn. Mitteleur Fl. vol. vi. p. 60 (1901). 
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