ROSA TOMENTOSA 
beneath ; petioles pubescent and glandular; stipules adnate, gland-ciliated, with ovate 
free points. Flowers few, corymbose ; peduncles moderately long, densely hispid ; 
bracts ovate. Calyx-tube usually oblong, hispid ; lobes f in. long, pinnatifid, 
glandular on the back. Petals usually pink. Styles free, hispid, not protruded. 
Fruit dark-red, oblong or subglobose, hispid or naked, ripening in September and 
October ; sepals deciduous by the time the fruit changes colour. 
This extremely polymorphous species is distributed throughout 
Europe, ranging from Britain, where it is abundant, to the Caucasus. It 
was confused by the earlier botanists, and even after Linnaeus was con- 
founded with Rosa villosa L. It was first clearly distinguished in 1 800 
by Smith in his Flora Britannica , and is probably, as he suggests, 
the “ Rosa sylvestris alba cum aliquo rubore, folio hirsuto,” figured by 
J. Bauhin. 1 According to Buddie’s herbarium it is the “Rosa sylvestris 
fructu majore hispido ” of Ray’s Synopsis l Dillenius, in his edition of 
Ray, 3 differentiated a Rose collected by Sherard near Kingston-on- 
Thames which Mr. Baker identifies with Rosa subglobosa of Smith. 
Crepin 4 was of opinion that an earlier name is Rosa mollissima Willde- 
now, but, in view of the hopeless confusion which would arise through 
the change of a name which has been in general use for more than a 
century, this seems to be one of the rare exceptions in which we should 
be justified in disregarding the rule of priority. 
Rosa tomentosa is intermediate between Rosa mollis Sm. and Rosa 
canina L., differing from the former by its less pubescent leaves, stouter 
prickles, long arching stem, and compound deciduous sepals. It runs 
into many varieties, several of which have received specific names. 5 The 
accompanying fruit drawings will serve to illustrate some of these 
variations. The principal are Rosa scabriuscula Winch, with nearly 
glabrous leaves ; Rosa Sherardi Davies, with subglobose fruit ; Rosa 
sylvestris Lindl., and Rosa cinerascens Dumort., with simply-toothed 
leaves. 
The Rosa tomentosa of Thory 6 is var. Jlore multiplici. 
1 His tor ia, vol. ii. p. 44 (1651). 
2 Ed. 2, p. 296 (1696). 
3 Ed. 3, p. 478 (1724). 
4 Bull. Soc. Bot. Belg. vol. xi. pp. 94, 95 ( Primit . Monogr. Ros. fasc. ii. pp. 210, 21 1) (1872). 
5 See a paper by the Rev. Augustine Ley in Journal of Botany. “The Villosae Section of the Genus 
Rosa” (1908, pp. 328-9). 
6 In Redoute, Roses , vol. ii. p. 87, t. ; Prodr. Monogr. Ros. p. 67. 
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