Magazine (1818) Page(s) 210-211.
[From "A Synopsis of the British Species of Rosa", by Joseph Woods, Esq. F.L.S. Read April 16 and June 4, 1816]
16. Rosa BORRERI.
R. receptaculis ellipticis, pinnis calycinis confertis, aculeis unci• natis subæqualibus, foliolis hirsutis eglandulosis duplicato-serratis.
R. dumetorum. Engl. Bot. xxxvi. t. 2579.
Frutex 6–10. pedalis. Rami diffusi, olivacei, aculeati; aculei uncinati, subæquales, plerumque stipulares, binati vel solitarii. Petioli tomentosi, glandulosi, aculeisque fortibus uncinatis inuniti. Stipulæ lineares, glanduloso-serratæ, pagina inferiore haud glandulosa, eæ floribus etiam solitariis propiores latiores, cymarum demuin foliis deficientibus in bracteas ovato-lanceolatas acuminatas immutatæ. Foliola 7, intense viridia, lucentia, par superius et foliolum impar ceteris majora, impar quoque foliolis paris superioris semper latius ; nunc ovato-elliptica, nunc rhombeo-elliptica, plana, duplicato-serrata, serrulaturis glandulosis, paginis ambabus plerumque hirsutis sed semper inferiore. Pedunculi 1-16, modo setis debilibus, nunc pilis albis sparsis, et nunc pubescentià densâ, instructi, bracteis breviores. Receptaculum ellipticum, obscure fuscum, glabrum. Calycis foliola triangulari-elliptica, composita, pinnis confertis, lanceolatis, vel ovato-lanceolatis, incisis, glanduloso-serratis. Flores incarnati vel rubescentes. Styli inclusi; stigmata planiuscula. Fructus ellipticus, rarius subglobosus, intense ruber.
Hedges and thickets, not uncommon.
β. Leaves hoary, with pubescence on both sides. Near Edinburgh, Mr. Borrer.
The leaves of this species are generally of a very dark colour, and always remarkably flat; the young leaves are tender at the edge, and frequently tinged with purple. This character it has in common with R. dumetorum and R. surculosa ; but both these plants have simple serratures; and these marks, as well as the peculiar breadth of the terminal leaflet, may assist the investigator, in addition to the specific character and to the particularities already pointed out under R. micrantha, in distinguishing it from that species : from which, notwithstanding its affinity, it also strikingly differs in general habit. The irregularity of the serratures in R. collina may sometimes create a difficulty between this and that species. The calyx-leafits, the dark-green that leaflets, and the broad terminal one, may help to decide in doubtful cases; yet some specimens I have been obliged to join to R. Borreri merely on account of the double serratures of the leaflets: and in the autumn of 1814 I observed a plant near Southgate, which, with all the other characters of R. Borreri, had nevertheless simple serratures : in 1815 the same plant had compound serratures. I have examined perhaps a hundred plants of this species, and my friends Mr. W. Borrer and Mr. E. Forster probably as many more, without meeting with any other instance of such an anomaly; nor has a similar one been observed in any other species.
The artificial character which separates this from R.cæsia seems to be slight; yet it is I believe constant; and as there is no approximation in habit, there will be no difficulty in distinguishing the plants. No synonym of any foreign author can be referrect with certainty to this species.
