Website/Catalog  (1982)  Page(s) 35.  
 
Rosa roxburghii (Burr rose) Solitary, single, pale pink flowers on a shrubby plant. Large, unusual fruit covered in spines. 1814 W. F.  Shade tolerant.  (S) 6 x 5’.

Book  (1981)  
 
Rosa roxburghii Tratt. A sturdy bush that, in its normal single-flowered form, grows up to 10 ft high and as much in width; bark grey or fawn, peeling; branches stiff, armed with a few rigid, straight prickles in pairs. Leaves 2 to 4 in. long, consisting of nine to seventeen or even nineteen leaflets; rachis downy and with a few prickles. Leaflets elliptic, ovate or oblong-ovate, up to 1 in. or slightly more long, obtuse or acute at the apex, rounded to cuneate at the base, glabrous on both sides or downy beneath, simply toothed. Flowers usually solitary, delicate rose, 2 to 2½ in. across, pleasantly fragrant (for the flowers of the type, which are double, see below); pedicels and receptacle prickly. Sepals broadly ovate, lobed, downy. Fruits flattened, tomato-shaped, 11⁄2 in. across, very spiny, yellowish green, fragrant.
Native of China and Japan; the type of the species was a double-flowered garden variety introduced from China to the Calcutta Botanic Garden, where it had long been cultivated (see below). The next introduction was of the Japanese race sometimes distinguished as var. hirtula, to which most single-flowered plants in gardens probably belong (Bot. Mag., t. 6548 (1881)). The wild single-flowered form of China (f. normalis Rehd. & Wils.) was introduced by Wilson, according to whom it is abundant by waysides and in semi-arid river-valleys throughout the warmer parts of W. Szechwan.
R. roxburghii is a most distinct rose, with its peeling bark, its small, numerous leaflets, and especially by its large, spiny, apple-like fruit with no hint of red in it even when fully ripe. In the leafless state its open habit, stiff branches and peeling bark scarcely suggest a rose. The flowers tend to be concealed by the foliage but are deliciously fragrant and much visited by bees....

Book  (1916)  Page(s) 319-320.  
 
Shrubs .5 - 1 m. tall, flowers rosy-red, fruit yellowish.
This bush Rose is abundant by waysides and in semi-arid river-valleys throughout the warmer parts of western Szech'uan....it is commonly used as a hedge-plant. ...It's ...leaflets and less sharply acute serratures and the absence of pubescence distinguish it from the Japanese R. Roxburghii var. hirtula Rehder & Wilson.

Magazine  (1913)  Page(s) 265.  
 
Rosa Forrestii Focke l.c. p. 67. Pl. LXII.- ibid. (Forrest n. 4450).

Magazine  (15 Jun 1901)  Page(s) 425.  
 
Rosa microphylla Simplex.
How seldom one meets with this pretty and interesting old Rose. No collection of Roses. however small, should be considered complete without it. It is a native of the Himalayas, and requires a rather dry soil and the protection of a wall or a sheltered nook in the garden. Apart from the beauty of the flowers, the foliage is most useful for mixing with other flowers. If the buds of this Rose are cut just before they begin to expand and are placed in water they will open freely and last several days.—T. B. Field, Ashwellthorpe Hall Gardens, Norwich.
[A delightful Rose, pure and beautiful in colour, and with pretty foliage.—Eds.]

Magazine  (1885)  Page(s) 3.  
 
Rosa microphylla.-In 1862 Dr. Maximowicz discovered near Lake Hakone, in Central Japan, the original type of the Microphylla rose in a spontaneous condition--the species being only known before from the cultivated forms introduced from Chinese gardens. It had solitary flowers with yellowish petals, and is marked in the herbarium of the Botanical Society of St. Petersburg, Rosa chlorocarpa. The fruit is spinescent; and give the appearance of a small chestnut; large, pulpy and eatable, the flavor by no means disagreeable. In France, what we have for Red Microphylla, is often called the old purple, as we judge from a note in the Journal des Roses, from which we condense these remarks. They have now started the improvement of this class, and have already Triomphe de la Guillotiere, raised by Guillot in 1864; Imbricata, by Ducher in 1869; and Ma Surprise, by J.B. Guillot in 1872.

Magazine  (1 Mar 1881)  Page(s) tab 6548.  Includes photo(s).
 
ROSA microphylla. [Drawing of single form - normalis - but text relates mostly to the double form]
Native of China and Japan.
Nat. Ord. Rosaceae. — Tribe Roseae.
Genus Rosa, Linn.; (Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. PI. vol. i. p. 425.)
Rosa microphylla ; frutex erectus, dense ramosus, glaberrimus v. puberulus, eglandulosus, ramis gracilibus, aculeis ad basin foliorum 2-nis rectis basi dilatatis rameis 0, foliis 3-4-pollicaribus, foliolis 3-7-jugis ellipticis subacutis v. acuminatis serrulatis, petiolo nudo v. sparse aculeolato, stipulis parvis v. 0, floribus solitariis ebracteatis breviter pedunculatis, calycis tubo pedunculoque densissime aculeolatis, aculeolis flavidis rectis a latere compressis, sepalis late ovatis v. ovato-rotundatis fimbriato-laceris persistentibus, petalis roseis 2-lobis, disco incrassato faucem claudente, fructu magno depresso globoso crasse carnoso basi intruso, achaeniis paucis basilaribus late ovoideis obtuse angulatis apice obtusis setosis.
R. microphylla, Roxb. in Lindl. Monog. Ros. pp.9, 146; Bot.Reg. t. 919; Roxb. Fl. Ind. vol. ii. p. 515; DC. Prodr. vol. ii. p. 602; Bot. Mag. t.3490; Wall. Cat. n. 692; Brandis For. Fl. of N. W. India, p. 200; Hook. f. Fl. Brit. Ind. vol. ii, p. 364; Crépin Prim. Monog. Ros. 330.

The old plate of the double variety of this plant, published nearly half a century ago in this work (Tab. 3490) gives no idea at all either of its habit or botanical characters. That of Lindley in the Botanical register, though better as regards foliage, also illustrates only the double-flowering state; whilst neither represents the fruit, which is quite unlike that of any of its congeners, and is now for the first time figured
Like many other Roses, the present was known in its cultivated state for long before its native country was discovered, though that this was China was suspected from its having been early recognized by Dr. Lindley as identical with a plant figured in a collection of Chinese drawings of plants in the possession of Mr. [name missing] after Sir Henry T. Colebrooke. All we know of its early history is, that it was introduced from Canton into the Calcutta Botanic Gardens by Dr. D. Roxburgh, from whence it has been diffused into Indian gardens generally. M. Crépin, whose is the only good description of the wild plant that has hitherto been published, gives Lake Hakone in central Japan as the sole native locality known to him, it having been collected there by M. Maximowicz in 1862, and Dr. Savatier in 1871; to this can now be added New-Kiang in North China, from whence there is in the Kew Herbarium a very indifferent specimen (apparently of the single form) collected by Dr. Shearer in 1873. In its double form Rosa microphylla is commonly cultivated throughout China and Japan, and even in Upper Burma, Dr. Anderson having found it at Momyen.
The fruit, which is as large as a crab-apple, is eaten by the Japanese. The leaflets of the wild form are described by M. Crepin as being medium-sized with long points.

Descr. A ramous eglandular nearly glabrous erect bush, attaining eight feet in height. Branches slender, flexuous, glabrous, unarmed except at the bases of the petioles, where there are two nearly straight flattened prickles with dilated bases. Leaves two to four inches long, seven- to nine-foliolate ; leaflets rarely more than one-half to two-thirds of an inch long, elliptic-ovate, acute, rarely acuminate, finely serrate, firm, smooth above, glabrous or puberulous beneath; rachis smooth or with a few small prickles. Flowers solitary, shortly peduncled. Calyx-tube hemispheric, densely clothed with stiff spreading straight yellowish laterally flattened prickles ; sepals broad, thick, rather fleshy, irregularly deeply lacerate on the margins, persistent. Disk very broad, closing the calyx-tube. Fruit one and a half to two inches in diameter, depressed-globose, considerably broader than long, intruded at the base; flesh very thick, leaving a small cavity much broader than long. Achenes basal, few, about one-third of an inch long, broadly ovoid, obtusely angled, straw-coloured, glabrate with a terminal tuft of bristles. — J. D. H.

Fig. 1, vertical section of calyx-tube and disk ; 2, ovar} T ; 3, ripe fruit ; 4, vertical section of the same ; 5, achene:— all but figs. 2, 3, and 4, enlarged.

Book  (1848)  Page(s) 107.  
 
Rosa microphylla.
7. Single; flowers bright red, large and single; form, cupped.