CXXX.— THE BURNET ROSE. 
Rosa spinosissima Linne. 
REMARKABI.E character in the Family Rosacece is that, whilst some of its 
genera, such as Rubus and Rosa, exhibit such infinite variability that, as we 
have before seen, it has been said that their species are still “ in the making,” many 
points of structure and of affinity with other Families suggest that the Family 
itself must be one of great geological antiquity. One of these points is the marked 
distinctness or isolation of its main divisions. 
The Tribe RosecB is almost co-extensive with the genus Rosa; and we may say of 
either that it is specially characterised by its fruit, the well-known “ hip,” a fleshy 
urn-shaped receptacular tube enclosing an indefinite number of distinct dry one- 
ovuled carpels and surmounted by the withered remains of the calyx. 
But how can we hope to do any justice here to the Rose, when many volumes 
have been devoted to its honour. When we compare the varied beauties of flowers, 
we generally leave the Rose out of consideration as not canvassing the beauty of the 
Queen of Beauty when speaking of that of her court. As Gerard says : — 
“The Rose doth deserve the cheefest and most principall place among all flowers whatsoever, being not onely esteemed 
for his beautie, vertiies, and his fragrant and odoriferous smell, but also because it is the honore and ornament of our English 
Scepter." 
Our gardens are credibly said to owe the Damask Rose-bush {Rosa damascena 
Miller) to Thomas Linacre, tutor to Prince Arthur and physician to Henry VllI ; 
and the Musk Rose {Rosa moschata Herrmann) to Thomas Cromwell ; but, long 
before this, and before the historic brawl in the Temple Gardens which is said 
to have begun the Wars of the Roses, the White Roses of our island had been 
singled out for special mention. Pliny, discussing the etymology of the word 
Albion, writes : — 
“ Albion insula sic dicta ab albis rupibus, quas mare alluit, vcl ob rosas albas quibus abundat.** 
“The island of Albion is so called from its white cliffs washed by the sea, or from the white roses with which it abounds.” 
Who shall say whether this fancied etymology refers to the White Rose of our 
hedgerows {Rosa arvensis Hudson), or to the Burnet Rose {Rosa spinosissima Linne) ; 
for this latter, liking a warm dry soil, grows in thickets on chalk or limestone hills 
as well as among the shifting sand-dunes of the shore 
In the sober facts of geography we find this genus of scrambling and most 
prickly shrubs almost confined to Northern Temperate regions and belonging more 
to the Old World than to the New. Lady Banks’s thornless Rose {Rosa Banksice 
R. Brown) is a native of China, and the genus extends into India, Abyssinia, and 
Mexico ; but the number of American species is comparatively small. The name, 
pohov, rhodon, in Greek, is common to both the Celtic and Hellenic divisions of the 
Aryan languages ; and is probably connected with the words “ red,” the German rolh^ 
Latin ruber, Greek ipv9p6<i, eruthros, and the Sanskrit rudhira, meaning “ blood ” ; so 
