THE BURNET ROSE — continued. 
that, whether or not, the distillation of the red Damask and Hundred-leaved Roses 
{R. damascena Miller and R. centifolia Linn^) for the manufacture of Otto or Attar 
is of equal antiquity, the recognition, and possibly the cultivation, of the Rose dates 
probably from before the Aryan migrations. 
The total number of species in the genus has been variously estimated at from 
thirty to two hundred and fifty ; but the variability is so bewildering that Linne 
himself, stout champion as he was of the fixity of species, confessed his belief that 
in this genus Nature had prescribed to them no certain limits. The cultivated 
varieties, which are numbered by the thousand and are added to every year, are 
obtained as seedlings, mostly hybrid, from a limited number of species, even the 
most “double” forms yielding occasional pollen and carpels sufficient to produce 
some seed. The warmer summers of the Continent allow more of these seeds 
to ripen thoroughly than does our climate, so that there are more varieties of 
foreign origin. 
Sir William Hooker described nineteen British species ; but his son, in 
consultation with Mr. John Gilbert Baker, reduced them to seven. 
“ As with the fruticose Ruhi^'* he says in the “ Student's Flora,” “ all the so-called species are connected by intermediates j 
but .whereas, in the Rubiy the 4 or 5 most distinct British forms are connected by so many links that various botanists regard 
them as forms of one species 5 in RosOy the five most d istinct British forms are connected by so few (comparatively) intermediates, 
that no botanical authority has reduced them to one species.” 
The prickles ot the Roses, which, like those of the Brambles, may be mingled 
with stiff bristle-like or glandular hairs, are purely superficial structures, not 
connected to the wood of the stem, and can thus be removed so as to leave a clean 
scar. They vary greatly in form, many climbing species having them curved ; 
whilst in the Burnet Rose, though very varied in length, they are all straight and 
apparently mainly protective against browsing animals. 
The leaves have adnate stipules and are in nearly all species pinnate, those 
of the Burnet Rose and its nearest allies having generally nine roundish, serrate 
leaflets, the likeness of which to those of the genus Poierium has given the plant 
its name which in full would be Burnet-leaved Rose. A form, differing mainly in 
having glandular hairs on the flower-stalk, was called Rosa pimpinellifolia by Linnaeus. 
Unlike our hedgerow Roses, in which the sepals are variously pinnately lobed, 
those of the Burnet Rose are entire ; and a further distinctive character is the short 
globular fruit which ripens in September to a dark purple or black. Sometimes 
known in Lancashire as Barrow Rose, from its abundance among the sand-hills or 
“ barrows ” on the coast, it is generally in flower between the twentieth and the 
twenty-fifth of April, a succession of blossoms continuing for many weeks. 
Though often known as the Scotch Rose, the species is nowhere more abundant 
than on the shores of the north-west of England and of Wales. 
