Book  (1932)  
 
The tetraploid "acicularis nipponensis" of Willmott (non Crép.) found in the Kew collection is a subspecies of R. pendulina L., which is DDEE, while the original diploid R. acicularis nipponensis of Crépin is a subspecies of R. rugosa Thunb., which is CC.

Book  (1917)  Page(s) 37.  
 
Mr. H. R. Darlington.  Some Early-Flowering Species of Roses.
R. nipponensis is another early Rose of somewhat similar [to R. alpina] though rather brighter, colouring, and slightly larger. From its foliage and habit one might easily conceive it to be a hybrid between some form of R. rugosa and an alpina or macrophylla variety. This, at all events, give some idea of its appearance.  It is hardy, and has the advantage of holding its own under somewhat adverse circumstances. As its name indicates, it was introduced into this country from Japan. The stems are covered with very numerous straight spines, and the flowers are followed by berries of a fine red colour.

Website/Catalog  (1909)  Page(s) 27.  
 
NOVELTY Rosa acicularis var. Nipponensis. A hardy alpine rose thriving well in cold climate with pretty single pink fragrant flowers grown naturaly on high elevation of over 5,000 feet above sea level....each $1,00, per 10 $7.50

Magazine  (1899)  Page(s) Tab 7646.  
 
ROSA acicularis, var. nipponensis.
Native of Japan.
Nat. Ord. Rosaceae. — Tribe Roseae.
Genus Rosa, Linn.; (Benth. &. Hook.f. Gen. Plant, vol. i. p. 625.)
Rosa (Pimpinellifoliae) acicularis; frutex erectus, ramosus, trunco setoso v. subinerme, ramis ramulis gracilibus pedunculisque setosis, foliis 2-4-pollicaribus, rhachi gracile setoso, foliolis ellipticis, stipulia oblongis, floribus solitariis gracile pedunculatis ebracteatis, calycis tubo oblongo, lobis anguste linearibus corollam asquantibus v. superantibus integerrimis tomentosia apicibus dilatatia, petalia sanguineo-roseia, fructibus ovoideis suberectia glaberritnis calycis laciniis conniventibus coronatis.
R. acicularis, Lindl. Monog. Ros. p. 44, t. 8. C. A. Meyer in Mém. Acad. Sc. Pétersb. Sér. 6, vol. vi. p. 15. Regel in Act. Hort. Petrop. vol. v. p. 54 & 525.
R. Gmelini, Bunge in Ledeb, Fl. Altaic, vol. ii. p. 228. Bong. Teg. Saisang-
Nor. Pfl. 33. Fl. Ross. vol. ii. p. 75. Karel. & Kiril. in Bull. Soc. Nat. Mosc. (1841), p. 419. C. A. Meyer, I.c. p. 17.
R. alpina, Pall. Fl. Ross. vol. ii. p. 61 (non Linn.).
R. carelica, Fries, Summ. Veg. Scand. p. 171.
R. acicularis, var. β Gmelini, Regel ex Maxim, in Herb. It. Secund. (nomen).
Var. Nippon ensis ; ramulis pedunculisqae glanduloso-setosis.
R. nipponensis, Crepin in Bull. Soc. Bot, Belg. vol. xW. (1875), p. 7, nomen in textu.

Not being a specialist in the genus Rosa, I give my determination of the name and synonymy of the beautiful plant here figured with some hesitation. Rosa acicularis appears to me to be a high North European and North Asiatic plant, extending from Finland (Rosa carelica, Fries) through Siberia to Japan. R. Gmelini, Bunge, of Siberia, seems to be the same tiling, or to differ only in the colouring of the under surface of the leaves. It has been confounded by Do Candolle (Prodr. ii. 611) and others with R. alpina, L., of the Alps, Pyrenees, &c., of which it is the northern representative, and which is distinguished, amongst other oharacters, by its nodding oblong or ellipsoid fruits.
The var. nipponensis has no other character than the glandular prickles of the young branches and peduncles. These glandular prickles I find on Siberian specimens of R. acicularis, and they are described by Fries as occurring in the peduncles of R. carelica.
Lindley's figure of R. acicularis , taken from a cultivated specimen, represents a plant with much larger and paler flowers than the Japanese specimen, or than the Finland one, which Fries describes as " sanguineo-rosei."
Seeds of this rose were received at the Royal Gardens, Kew, in 1891, from the Botanic Garden of Copenhagen, under the name of R. nipponensis. Plants raised from these flowered in June, 1898, and fruited in the following August. The name has been obligingly verified by Mr. Crepin. The only Japanese habitat in the Kew Herbarium is the mountain Fujiyama, in Nippon, collected by Tschonoski.

descr. of var. nipponensis.- An erect bush, trunk naked or prickly, branches slender, and peduncles more or less covered with glandular bristles. Leaves two to four inches Long, petiole short and slender, Rhachis setulose, leaflets five to nine, rarely three, one half to two-thirds of an inch long, thin, elliptic, finely serrulate, pale green; stipules onlong, obtuse, entire. Flowers solitary, an inch and half in Diameter; peduncle very slender, one to one and a half inches long. Calyx-tube oblong, glabrous, lobes an Inch Long, very slender, linear, tips dilated, pubescent or tomentose, erect in fruit. Petals rather shorter than the calyx-lobes, deep rose-coloured. Fruit sub-erect, about three-fourths of an inch long, ovoid, smooth, crowned by the long calyx-lobes. _ J.D.H.

Fig. 1. Portion of peduncle; 2. stamen; 3. ovary; 4. ripe achene: - All enlarged.

Magazine  (1 Jul 1886)  Page(s) 104.  Includes photo(s).
 
Les Roses du Japon
N^o 4.- Cette variété forme un arbuste se rapprochant beaucoup, par l’aspect général, des églantiers de France. Elle croît sur les hautes montagnes (Fuji-no-yama par exemple), avec les mélèzes et les sapins. On ne le rencontre jamais sur les collines ni dans les plaines.
Ses fleurs sont d’un rose analogue à celui des lauriers roses.
Fleurit au mois d’août.
Les quatre variétés de roses du Japon que nous venons de décrire, vivent dans cette contrée, à l’état sauvage, et n’ont jamais été cultivées.
T. Takasima

Translation (based on "The Encyclopaedia of Antique Roses", ed. by Robert E. Edberg, III, Vol. II, 2005):
No 4.- This variety makes a shrub very much approaching, by its general appearance, the wild roses of France. It grows on the high mountains (Fujiama, for example), with the larches and the fir trees. One never finds it in the hills nor in the flat, open ground.
Ist flowers are of a pink similar to that of pink laurels.
It blooms in the month of August.
The four varieties o Japanese roses we have described, living in that country in a wild state, have never been cultivated.
 

Book  (1879)  Page(s) Vol. II, p. 347.  
 
(557). Acicularis. — Adde:
Hab. in monte Fudsi Yama, insulæ Nippon (Tschonoski).
Observ. — M. Crépin, Prim. mon. ros. 3, p. 201, n'est pas certain que la plante récoltée par Tschonoski appartienne réellement au R. acicularis, à cause de ses feuilles formées d'un nombre plus considérable de folioles, et il la distingue provisoirement sous le nom de R. nipponensis. Cf. Crépin, l. c.