1 24 ROSACEAE 



ward to Minnesota and south to Georgia and Arkansas. In 

 Illinois, it is rare, reported thus far only from St. Clair and 

 Henderson counties. 



ROSA BLANDA Alton 

 Meadow Rose 



The Meadow Rose, fig. 28, is a low shrub generally less than 

 3 feet high, with glabrous canes that when old are sometimes 

 covered more or less densely with short, straight, or curved 

 weak prickles. The branches and branchlets are also smooth, 

 or rarely armed with a few prickles. There are 5 to 7, or 

 rarely 9, oval to obovate or oblong leaflets per leaf. Lateral 

 leaflets are sessile or stand on very short stalks, and terminal 

 leaflets stand on stalks sometimes 1]/^ inches long. The leaflets 

 are up to 1 inch wide and nearly 2 inches long, acute or rounded 

 at the apex, narrowed or rounded at the base, and coarsely 

 serrate on the margins. The upper surface is dull, smooth or, 

 rarely, slightly pubescent, and the under surface is more or less 

 pubescent. Petioles and rachises are more or less densely woolly 

 pubescent and, rarely, glandular-hispid also. The stipules are 

 generally pubescent above and beneath, or sometimes glabrous 

 except on the margins, which are entire and ciliate or more or 

 less glandular-hispid. 



The pale or bright pink flowers, which appear about the first 

 of June, are solitary or in pairs or small clusters of 3 to 5 at 

 the end of branches. They stand on glabrous pedicels 14 ^o % 

 inch long. The calyx tube is glabrous, and its lanceolate, cau- 

 date lobes are slightly dilated at the tip, about Yi inch long, and 

 glandular-hispid on the back, and erect and persistent. The 

 fruit, which matures in autumn, is scarlet, nearly globose or 

 oval, and smooth, and the seeds are attached at the bottom of 

 the seed receptacle. 



Distribution. — The Meadow Rose ranges from Newfound- 

 land west to Saskatchewan and south to Pennsylvania and 

 Illinois. In Illinois, it is an abundant rose in the northern 

 counties, but becomes rarer southward and has not been ob- 

 served at any point south of the Ozarks. 



A tall, swamp-inhabiting form of this species growing in 

 northeastern Illinois counties appears identical with R. ac'icu- 

 larioides Schuette, a Wisconsin species. 



