(Nov 2017)  Page(s) 19.  
 
In the northwest mountains of Shansi province, Wilson found R. bella, a low-growing, dense and compact plant of two and a half to four feet. Though in Plantae Wilsoniana he describes the flower color as pale rose, in the American Rose Annual 1916 after it bloomed under cultivation in 1915, he describes it as “a blaze of rich red flowers.” The species seems to be related to R. webbiana.

(Nov 2017)  Page(s) 16-17.  
 
From the high mountains of northwestern Hupeh comes the rather distinct, uncommon species R. caudata. A smaller rambler compared to many of the other Chinese wild roses, its flowers and leaves vary in size, the flowers rose-red growing in convex corymbs, the hips red-orange, the canes rather sparsely punctuated with straight prickles wide at the base. The sepals are tail-shaped, whence its Latin name (cauda = tail or tail end). Wilson sent seeds of the rose to the Arnold Arboretum during his exploration of 1907-08.

(Nov 2017)  Page(s) 9.  
 
Wilson also re-introduced R. chinensis spontanea, which Augustine Henry saw first in 1884 but beyond a description in 1902 had not submitted a plant specimen. Wilson collected specimens of it fruits but seems not to have observed it in flower. Not until 1983 was it seen in flower by Mikinori Ogisu. The variable habit of this rose can display itself as a climber or as an arching, rambling shrub, with light pink, buff or cream-colored flowers, the pink darkening to strong red with age. In some specimens the plant produces only three leaflets to a leaf, in others both three and five. Its prickles are red to brown and recurved, its leaves distinctly serrate, its sepals on the inner surface dressed in silky hairs. R. chinensis spontanea appears to prefer banks of rivers and rocky slopes of shale and limestone. It blooms from March into May.

(Nov 2017)  Page(s) 17.  
 
Also from the Hupeh province and from Shensi, R. corymbulosa is a species Wilson introduced in 1907. Nearly spineless, it puts forth small, deep lilac-pink blossoms that are paler near the center and leaves that are glaucous and downy underneath until autumn when they become wine-purple. The canes are smooth, the stipules and receptacles are glandular, the latter turning coral-red as hips. Jack Harkness classified it as a true R. cinnamomea, and related to R. davidii. The Latin name refers, of course, to the flat-topped cluster of flowers whose pedicels each emerge from various points of the peduncle or main stem, an arrangement known as a corymb.

(Nov 2017)  Page(s) 14.  
 
Three times in 1908 Wilson chanced across R. davidii var. elongata growing its rose-pink flowers among thickets at elevations over 6000 feet. It differs from the main type R. davidii Crep. by producing fewer blossoms, and larger and more elongated hips of scarlet or orange-red, and generally larger leaves. It appears closely related to R. macrophylla of the western Himalayas.

(Nov 2017)  Page(s) 15.  
 
A rather famous sport of R. filipes was discovered in England at Kiftsgate Court, Gloucestershire, and was introduced in 1954 by botanist, environmental activist, and nurserywoman Hilda Murrell—who was abducted and murdered in 1984 just prior to presenting an anti-nuclear paper on radioactive waste management. In 2003 ‘Kiftsgate’ had grown 85 feet into a copper beech tree at the estate where its seedling was first found. A

(Nov 2017)  Page(s) 15.  Includes photo(s).
 
The white R. filipes rarely ornaments gardens today. Its size alone is a daunting factor. Its fragrant flowers grow in huge clustered cymes and panicles on canes able to climb over fifty feet high and 100 feet wide. The long, lanceolate leaves exhibit glands underneath..... According to Wilson, this species has “a rather local distribution” in western Sichuan though it is rather common in the dry regions.

(Nov 2017)  Page(s) 12.  
 
From late 1906 to 1909, financed by Harvard’s Arnold Arboretum, Wilson again scoured China for plants. Roses he had seen and collected in 1900 and 1901, such as R. gentiliana, R. helenae, R. giraldii var. venulosa, and R. sertata, he introduced in 1907 or shortly thereafter. ...
Wilson’s R. gentiliana is not the same as Léveillé & Vaniot’s R. gentiliana; today Wilson’s discovery is considered a synonym of R. henryi. Often seen as tangled masses in rocky places, the plant’s glabrous shoots age to a pale grey, rather like the underside grey of its shiny green leaves. The white flowers of this climbing shrub exhibit a large boss of golden yellow and exude a strong but pleasant fragrance. It is very sensitive to frost.

(Nov 2017)  Page(s) 13.  
 
Wilson chanced across two varieties of R. giraldii, which Belgian botanist Francois Crepin had described in 1897, the year G. Giraldi had discovered it in Shensi province of China. The glabruiscula form shows small, rosy-pink flowers and glabrous leaves; the venulosa form is differentiated from the principle variety and the latter by its distinctive reticulation—a network of veins—on the underside of its leaves. The flowers are pink. According to Jack Harkness, given its decumbent canes, it is “a bush pretending to be a weeping willow.”

(Nov 2017)  Page(s) 13.  
 
Wilson chanced across two varieties of R. giraldii, which Belgian botanist Francois Crepin had described in 1897, the year G. Giraldi had discovered it in Shensi province of China. The glabruiscula form shows small, rosy-pink flowers and glabrous leaves; the venulosa form is differentiated from the principle variety and the latter by its distinctive reticulation—a network of veins—on the underside of its leaves. The flowers are pink. According to Jack Harkness, given its decumbent canes, it is “a bush pretending to be a weeping willow.”