THE fl/5^ERICp BOTpiST. 



Vol. VI. BINGHAMTON, N. Y., APRIL, 1904. No. 4^ v9^^ 



WILD ROSES. ^^^Nt^^ 



BY DR. WILLIAxVI WHITMAN BAILEY. (VN^ 



"N I'O one can think of wild roses without recalHng the 

 ^' ^ beauty and innocence of youth. They grow beside 

 the highway's of our childhood ; thej" bloom throughout 

 the literature of our race. The songs of minstrels and 

 troubadours are gay with them ; they gave their names 

 to the wars in which Falstaifwas a soldier; they orna- 

 ment the verses of all the poets. The sweet moss-rose and 

 the eglantine sing themselves into memory. Much as we 

 love the queen of the gardens, it is the rustic rose, after all, 

 that dwells in our hearts. 



The nearer we approach the seashore, the larger and 

 more showy do they become. Even cultivated roses suc- 

 ceed better near the coast. The swamp-rose (Rosa Caro- 

 lina) is our most common kind. It has from five to nine 

 dull green, finely toothed leaflets, usually narrowly oblong 

 and acute at each end, dull green and soft hairy beneath. 

 There are no resinous glands and but fev^^ .scattered prick- 

 les. This shrub has a wide range, from Nova Scotia to 

 Florida and west to Minnesota. 



Another species, Rosa lucida, has coarsely toothed, 

 dark green leaflets, smooth and often shining above ; 

 flowers either solitar3^ or in clusters. It has short and 

 more or less hooked spines. Our roses love to grow in 

 copses and clumps. The time to see them in their glory is 

 in the morning. If one wishes to have them bloom in the 

 house, he must pluck them in the bud in the late afternoon. 

 The open flowers are very evanescent. 



"The rose that lives it's little hour 



Is prized above the sculptured flower." 



Rosa hlanda is another species found in New England, 



