ROSA FOETIDA 
preserved it in his herbarium. Prof. Wolf collected it on the 
gypseous rocks near Nax and M. Correvon near Lierre in the 
Valais. Tchihatcheff, Dr. T. Thomson, and Dr. Haussknecht found 
it growing wild in various localities in the East, but K. Koch, who 
travelled much in the East, never came across it except in cultivation. 
It was already well known in gardens in the latter part of the sixteenth 
century. Dodonaeus 1 and Lobel 2 figured it under the name of Rosa 
hitea ; and Gerard had both the type and the crimson variety in his 
Holborn garden in 1 596. Linnaeus confused it with the Sweet Briar 
in the Species P lantarum, his diagnosis of Rosa Rglanteria being 
really that of the Austrian Rose, whilst the synonyms he cites belong 
to the Sweet Briar. In his annotated edition of the Species P lantarum, 
preserved at the Linnean Society, he has erased these synonyms and 
written “ R. lutea, Bauh. Pinax. p. 483.” 
Before Linnaeus there had never been any doubt as to what was 
meant by the Eglantine. The sixteenth-century botanists gave that 
name to the wild Roses of the hedges, Rosa canina L., Rosa tomentosa 
Sm. and Rosa rubiginosa L., but the name was most commonly given 
to the last. In France it is still the popular name for these Roses. 
Notwithstanding the decree that nomenclature should date from 
Linnaeus, Crepin retained the name of Rosa lutea , under which 
Dalechamps had exactly described this Rose more than three hundred 
years ago. 
“ The yellow or golden Rose is so named on account of its colour. Its flowers 
and its colour are different to others, its leaves are small, round, and of a brownish 
green, much serrated, the points almost sharp. Its branches are well armed with 
thorns, the flowers golden or yellow, but not double like garden Roses, for it has 
but five petals. Its odour is unpleasant, nature did wrong in depriving such a 
beautiful flower of the perfume which it should have had in common with other 
Roses, for had it only given forth a sweet scent, it would not have ranked among 
the last of beautiful flowers. It is indigenous in Italy, and we have only lately 
begun to grow it in our French gardens.” 3 
Both the typical form and the two-coloured form of the Austrian 
Briar are most ornamental and very floriferous, although the blossoms 
are fugacious. It may be grown as a standard in the open ground, 
but deserves a wall, and, so treated, it is one of the most attractive 
of shrubs. It increases by suckers, but these are not produced in any 
abundance. 
Crepin was of opinion that in future all the yellow Roses would 
be grouped together on account of their affinity. 
1 Historia, p. 1 86 (1583). 
2 leones , vol. ii. p. 209 (1581). 
3 Dalechamps, Hist. PL vol. i. p. 126, fig. (1587). 
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