It is found from the mountains of Mexico to Hudson’s Bay, from the coast of Barbary to Sweden, in Lapland and Siberia, from Spain to the Indies, China, and Kamschatka. “In Asia, half the species have been found; of the thirty-nine which it produces, eighteen are natives of the Russian dominions and the countries adjacent. Most of these are very similar to the European portion of the genus, and five are common to both Europe and Asia. Of the remainder, one, which is, perhaps, a distinct genus, has been discovered in Persia, fifteen in China, and two of the latter, with four others, in the north of India.”
We shall not here describe all the species mentioned by Lindley and Loudon; but only those which are the parents of our garden sorts. A large part of the species described by these authors cannot be found in any collection in this country; and, in fact, very few possess any interest except to the botanist. The descriptions here given are mainly abbreviated from those of Loudon.
BRACTEATÆ.—Bracted Roses.
This section is readily distinguished by the woolliness of branches and fruit. Leaves dense, usually shining; prickles placed under the stipules in pairs. Sepals simple, or nearly so.
R. bracteata, Wendl.—The Large-bracted Rose.—Macartney Rose. Evergreen. Branches upright. Prickles stout, recurved, in many instances in pairs. Leaflets 5-9, obovate, subserrate, coriaceous, glossy, glabrous. Stipules scarcely attached to the petiole, bristle-shaped, but fringed. Peduncles and calyxes tomentose. Flowers showy, pure white, solitary, nearly sessile. Fruit spherical, orange red. Native of China; growing to the height of five feet or six feet, and flowering from June to October.
A very ornamental shrub, evergreen, with large white flowers, and numerous bright yellow stamens and styles. It flowers abundantly, but is rather tender in England. It succeeds best when trained against a wall.
R. microphylla, Roxb.—The Small-leafleted Rose.—Hoi-tong-hong, Chinese. Stem almost without prickles. Leaflets glossy, sharply serrated, veiny beneath, with densely netted, anastomosing veins. Stipules very narrow, unequal. Calyx densely invested with prickles. Sepals short, broadly ovate, bristly, ending in a point. Prickles having at the base two longitudinal furrows. Flowers very large, double, and of a delicate blush color. Native of China; growing to the height of two feet or three feet, and flowering from August to October.
PIMPINELLIFOLIÆ. Lindl.
Plants bearing crowded, nearly equal, prickles, or unarmed. Bractless, rarely bracteate. Leaflets ovate or oblong. Sepals connivent, permanent. Disk almost wanting.
This section is essentially different from the last in habit, but in artificial characters they approach very nearly. It, however, may be distinguished by the great number of leaflets, which vary from seven to thirteen, and even to fifteen, instead of from five to seven. The flowers are also without bracts, except in some species not mentioned here. These, having connivent permanent sepals, cannot be confounded with the preceding division; nor, on account of their disk, with the following. There is no instance of stipular prickles in the present tribe. The sepals are entire, or nearly so.