Magazine  (1906)  Page(s) 299-300.  
 
[From "Concerning some Asian Roses", article by W.O. Focke]
Crépins section of Rosa Sericae is determined excellently by the four-petalled blooms. In most of the other characters, it is similar with Cinnamomeae from which it differs by the broad auricles of the stipules and the lengthened stylus. The Sericae contains only one species, R. sericea Lindl., which has a wide extension throughout central Asia and the Himalayas. Its most conspicious characteristic, the four petals, was initially wholly overlooked. ...Lindley does not mention it...Lindley's picture of R. sericea erroneously shows a bloom with 5 petals...
While the species is monotype, it has quite a few forms. In my crossing experiments, where I used a very glandular variety of R. sericea, it could be seen that the glands are an excellent indicator of hybrids. Naturally, they cannot be found in descendants of the non-glandular typical R. sericea....[which] varies: with broad sessile prickles aloing the cane or slimmer straight prickles, with elongated or globular hips, blackish red, red or yellow. Also the blooming period of the individual forms seem sto vary (see Catalogue of Vilmorin, p. 99). Especially remarkable are:... Subspec. inermis (R. inerma Bertol...) scarce and small prickles, sometimes lacking totally... Subspec. nigritella. Branches densely covered with dark pedicelled glands and bristles, peduncles and receptacles with short, dark pedicelled glands. Fruit globular, blackish red. True to seed. I saw this form cultivated in Kew, have also grown it for several years and used it in my crossings. The leaflets are a little more acuminate than the typical R. sericea. Similar variations in the amount of pedicelled glands is also seen with R. Fedtschenkoana Rgl.
From my crossings with Rosa sericea nigritella have those with R. rubiginosa and R. tomentosa already bloomed...

Magazine  (1906)  Page(s) 294-295, plate 1300.  Includes photo(s).
 
Rosa sericea Of the wild Roses there are few that equal Rosa sericea in simple grace and beauty...It was introduced from Gossam Than, a mountain in Northern Nepal, about ninety years ago and was first described by Lindley....Its flowers are distinct from those of other Roses in having, nearly always, but four petals...They are of a creamy white, and the flower is about 2 inches across. One reat charm...is its beautiful folilage: the leaflets are small and rich green, giving to the plant as a whole a soft, Fern-like aspect. There is a fine bush at Kew measuring 15 feet through and 9 feet high...Rosa sericea is a very variable species, especially ...the woolliness of its leaves and the armature of its stems. In some forms spines are entirely absent...The most remarkable feature, however, of this new variety is the fine blood red colour of its enormous translucent spines. I first saw living specimens of this Rose in the famous fruiticetum of M. Maurice de Vilmorin at Les Barres in France, where several final bushes are growing, originally raised from seed sent from Yunnan by the Abbé Delavay. The species has a wide distribution on the south side of the Himalyas, extending from Bhotan at least as far westward as Kumaon. But none...appear to have spines as large as this Yunnanese variety, although one, collected by Sir George Watt in Manipur, has very broad-based spines. Some of the forms have very woolly leaves, others are quite smooth. The fruits vary also from yellow to red. I was informed by M. de Vilmorin that the Yunnan forms have red fruits, whilst those found more north in Setchuen have yellow ones. The are Pear-shaped and half an inch long. [signed W.J.Bean]

Magazine  (1897)  Page(s) 234.  
 
Sect. SERICEAE.
Rosa sericea Lindl.
Hab. N. 34. Prima zona ed alle falde del Monte Thae-pei-san (10-20 Agosto 1894); n. 14. Alle falde del Monte Huau-tou-san (24-26 Luglio 1894); n. 17. Dalle falde alla metà del Thao-pei-san (Agosto 1893); n. 12. Pooli, circa 20 chilometri a sud di Tein-z-scien (Luglio-Agosto 1894, legit Padre Zanobi Zampini e servo); n. 13. Piccolo Monte Hua-tzo-pin, distante dal Monte Tun-u-sse 10 chilometri e da Han-kuin-fu 25 chilometri, Shen-si meridionale (20 Giugno 1894).
Obs. Cette espèce est très variable, mais toujours reconnaissable à certains caractères qui lui sont propres. ....Crépin.

Magazine  (1893)  Page(s) 195.  
 
Nouvelles Observations sur les aiguillons du Rosa sericea Lindl., par M.P.Duchartre.
Lorsque j'ai écrit, sur les aiguillons du Rosa sericea Lindl., la Note qui a paru dans la Revue générale de Botanique (V, 15 janvier 1893, p.5-11, fig. 1-3), je n'avais à ma disposition...qu'un rameau frais et non disposé à fleurir qui m'avait été donné obligeamment par M. Maurice de Vilmorin, dans son domaine des Barres (Loiret)....M. Franchet a bien voulu me confier temporairement la nombreuse série des échantillons du Rosier soyeux que renferme l'herbier du Muséum d'Histoire naturelle, et qui proviennent tous d'envois faits par M. l'abbé Delavay, missionaire français, qui les a lui-même recueillis en Chine, de 1883 à 1888, à différents moments de l'année, depuis le mois d'avril jusqu'à la fin du mois de décembre........
La Rosa sericea Lindl. est une espèce sujette à de nombreuses variations. Sa variabilité avait été signalée, dès 1872, par M. Crépin.....Cette variabilité du Rosa sericea a été aussi très bien constatée par M. Franchet, qui, dans l'herbier du Muséum, classant les nombreux échantillons chinois de cette espèce, les a répartis en trois variétés nommées pteracantha, glabrescens et denudata.
[rough translation]
When I wrote the note about the prickles of Rosa sericea Lindl. which appeared in the American Journal of Botany (V, January 15, 1893, p.5-11, fig. 1-3) , I had at my disposal ... a cane that was fresh and unwilling to bloom, kindly given to me by Mr Maurice de Vilmorin at des Barres (Loiret ).... Mr. Franchet temporarily entrusted to me the large number of samples of the Silky Rose contained in the herbarium of the Museum of Natural History, which all come from shipments made by the Abbe Delavay, French missionary, who collected them himself in China, 1883-1888, at different times of the year, from April until the end of December ........
Rosa sericea Lindl. is a species subject to many variations. The variability was reported in 1872 by Mr Crépin ..... This variability was also well observed by Mr Franchet, who, in the herbarium of the Museum, classifying many samples of this Chinese species, has divided them into three varieties named pteracantha, glabrescens and denudata.

Magazine  (1886)  Page(s) 254.  
 
Rosa sericea,....Yunnan: between Momyen and Nantyen (Anderson), various localities up to 11,000 feet (David ex Crépin)...India, from Kumaon eastward. Anderson's specimens are remarkable for the extreme hairiness of the leaves; and David's are described as having the spines dilated at the base to an extraordinary degree, sometimes, indeed, extending throughout the entire length of the internode. In the Kew Herbarium are specimens of the latter, from Munnypore, collected by Watt.

Book  (1877)  Page(s) 30.  
 
Rosa sericea.....
a. typica; glabrous branches, pink five-petalled blooms. R. sericea Lindl. Ros. mon. p.105, tab.12. [Lindley possibly had not seen a bloom, as he pictures a light pink, 5-petalled single; Regel propagates the error as R. sericea typica]
b. tetrapetala; glabrous branches, white 4-petalled blooms. R. sericea Royle ill. tab.42, fig. 1. R. Wallichii Tratt. Ros. II.193. [= R. sericea var. omeiensis]
c. Hookeri; branches downy-glandulous, blooms white, 4-petalled. R. sericea Hook. bot. mag. tab. 5200. [= R. sericea var. sericea]
d. subinermis, branches unarmed to armed with scarce prickles.
Habitat in Gossan-Than (Wallich), in the Sikkim Alps (Thomson) and south-western China in the Kansu province (Przewalski).

Book  (1875)  Page(s) fasc. 3, p. 359.  
 
[From an article by F. Crépin on Rosa sericea Lindl.]
Messrs Hooker and Thompson have found it distributed in the province of Sikkim (9000 to 14000 feet)....

Book  (1875)  Page(s) fasc. 3, pp. 355-359.  
 
Rosa sericea Lindl. Cette encore Lindley qui a eu l'honneur d'établir (Ros. Monogr., p.105, tab.12) cette curieuse espèce. Celle-ci ne doit pas être rangée dans la section des Caninae comme l'avait fait le monographie anglais, car elle constitue à elle seul une section bien distincte de toutes les autres et qui n'a, au surplus, aucun rapport avec celle des Caninae.....Lindley, d'après des échantillons envoyés par Wallich, signalait le R. sericea dans le Gossain Than. Depuis cette époque, les montagnes de l'Himalaya ayant été explorées par d'intrépides botanistes, le R. sericea a été constaté dans diverses provinces de cette région montagneuse...[Follows a list of locations where R. sericea has been found].

Book  (1872)  Page(s) fasc. 2, 102-104.  
 
.....Il existe un autre type asiatique qui est bien autrement instructif sous le rapport des variations... Ce type, qui est le Rosa sericea Lindl., varie d'une façon extraordinaire dans plusieurs de ses organs. Ses axes sont complètement inermes ou fortement aiguillonnés. Dans ce dernier cas, l'armature offre deux états distincts: ou bien les aiguillons ont cette forme étarange qu'on n'observe que dans cette espèce, aiguillons très aplatis, largement triangulaires, à pointe horizontale, ordinairement géminés ou ternés sous les feuilles, sans être accompagnés d'aucune production de l'écorce, ou bien les grands aiguillons sont plus étroits que les précédents, à pointe fortement relevée, accompagnés de nombreux aiguillons sétacés et de soies glanduleuses recouvrant tous les entre-noeuds. Parfois les aiguillons géminés deviennent petits, peuvent même disparaïtre et alors les axes sont seulement sétigères. Les folioles sont velues-tomenteuses sur les deux faces, velues en dessous et glabres en dessus, ou bien leur villosité peut être bornée aux seules nervures et même à la côte: elles sont églanduleuses en dessous, ou chargées de glandes abondantes qui recouvre toute leur face inférieure; leur dents sont simples ou composées-glanduleuses. Les pédicelles sont courts ou allongés, glabres ou velus, églanduleux ou glanduleux. Les réceptacles florifères et fructifères sont ovoïdes, obovoïdes ou sphériques. Les sépales sont à dos glabre ou pubescent, églanduleux ou glanduleux. En somme, cette espèce peut être inerme ou aiguillonnée, à feuilles presque entièrement glabres ou fortement velues, églanduleuses ou abondamment glanduleuses, à folioles à dents simples ou à dents composées, à pédicelles glabres ou velus, églanduleux ou glanduleux, ainsi que les sépales, à réceptacles ovoïdes ou sphériques.....En tenat compte de ces nombreuses modifications, on pourrait démembrer artificiellement le R. sericea en une douzaine au moins de petites espèces; mais ce type est tellement bien distinct par ses caractères biologiques et morphologiques, tellement bien reconnaisable sous ses diverses livrées, quôn ne peut le démembrer sans être taxé d'absurdité.

Magazine  (1 Aug 1860)  Page(s) tab 5200.  Includes photo(s).
 
ROSA sericea
Silky-leaved Rose.
Nat. Ord. Rosaceae. — Icosandria Di-Pentagynia.
Gen. Char. (Vide supra, Tab. 4030.)
Rosa (§ Caninae) sericea; ramis villoso-glandulosis, aculeis validis stipularibus e basi dilatata compresse subulatis rectis, foliolis 7-9 parvis ovalibus serratis, floribus plerisque tetrapetalis, fructibus turbinatis calycibusque externe pubescentibus.
Rosa sericea Lindl. Monogr. Ros. p.105. t.12. Royle, Fl. Himal. p. 208. t. 42. f. 1. De Cand.Prodr. v.2. p. 613. Wall.Cat. p.695.
Rosa tetrapetala. Royle, l.c.p.23.
Rosa Wallichii. Trattin. Ros. v.2. p. 193.

A white-flowered, usually tetrapetalous Rose of Himalaya, first detected by Dr. Wallich at Gossam Them, but since found abundantly in northern India. Dr. Lindley speaks of it as " a Rose which, together with R. macrophylla, found in the same district, exhibits the nearest approach among Indian Roses to those of Europe." Introduced by Dr. Hooker and Mr. Strachey into our gardens, where it proves perfectly hardy, and is best treated by nailing against a wall. Thus situated, its blossoms are abundant in the early summer.
Descr. A moderate-sized bush. Branches numerous, stout, green when young, at length brown, clothed with copious, rather short, spreading, glandulous hairs or setae; the glands clammy, and yielding an aromatic odour. Prickles rather distant, large, strong, dark purple, from a very broad dilated base, laterally compressed, subulate, very pungent, straight, generally appearing below the base of the stipule. leaves about four inches long, long-petiolate, petiole with a pair of lanceolate stipules, decurrent, and forming a broad wing to the base of the petiole. Leaflets seven to nine, small, from half to three-quarters of an inch long at the utmost, oval or subovate, strongly serrated at the base, silky, or rather glanduloso-hirsuta in our specimens, beneath. Flowers solitary, upon the peduncles a little drooping, moderately large in cultivated specimens, small in native ones. Peduncle and calyx-tube villose, the hairs tipped with a gland; the limb of four, rarely five, ovato-lanceolate, acuminated segments, shorter than the petals pubescenti-villous on the outside. Petals broad-obcordate, four, rarely five, spreading, white. Fruit globoso-turbinate, rather small, glandular, crowned with the persistent calyx-segments. Stamens numerous. Styles free.

Fig. 1. Flower, from which the petals are removed, — magnified. 2. Fruit,- nat. size.