1884.] BEAUTIES OF BBITlSn TREES. 173 



petals of thelfull-blown Rose after it is, plucked, is unfortunately, 

 proverbial ; but we must set against this the endurance of their 

 varied perfumes after they have fallen. Science has not yet furnished 

 us with any scale of odours that will enable us even roughly to 

 characterise the many scents of our lioses. Some are scentless, but 

 none are unpleasing in smell. 



Whilst acknowledging the pre-eminent charm of the] flower, we 

 must also record the great beauty in many Koses of the fruit, the 

 famaliar * hip ' of our boyhood. In structure this fruit, which 

 botanists term a ' cynarrhodum,' is exceptional. Within a fleshy, 

 polished and gaily-coloured urn, or ' receptacular tube,' crowned 

 above by the shrivelled remnants of the calyx and the stamens, 

 which, with the now-fallen petals, once rose from its rim, are the 

 small hard fruitlets, or ' achenes,' often coated with downy hair, and 

 each containing a single seed, so that one hip may include as many 

 as twenty. In colour these hips — at first bright green — range in 

 autumn from clear yellow, through every shade of scarlet and 

 crimson, to black ; and they also vary greatly and beautifully in form 

 and in size, some being perfectly spherical, and as large as a medlar. 



The large blossoms of the double Eoses, rich as they are in colour 

 and perfume, have too great an air of cultivation to be in place be- 

 yond the limits of the garden proper ; and, concerned as we are with 

 British trees mainly in relation to the shrubbery, park, and wood- 

 land, we will, therefore, speak only of the Briars, or single Roses. Of 

 these, as before stated, we have in England five distinct groups, often 

 termed species ; viz. : the Scotch or Burnet Roses (B. spinosissima), 

 tlie Downy Eoses {B. villosa), ihe Sweet Briar (B. rubigijiosa) the Dog 

 Roses {B. canina) , and the Hedge Roses {B. arvensis). 



The Burnet Roses are low-growing, erect, and bushy shrubs, their 

 stems crowded with straight prickles of very unequal length, with 

 stiff bristles and with glandular hairs, and their leaves small, but 

 made up of as many as seven or nine leaflets. From May to August 

 they produce their flowers, which are generally solitary, but some- 

 times two or three together, from an inch to an inch and a half 

 across ; generally white, but sometimes pale pink ; and with their 

 styles short, and not united. In September and October they ripen 

 their pink, red, purple, or black hips, which are short and roundish, 

 and have generally sepals distinctly persistent. In dry or exposed 

 northern situations they may make effective bushes, three or four 

 feet high, in a park or wild garden. 



The Downy Roses form larger bushes, with arching branches some- 

 times from six to ten feet in length, having but fewprickles scattered 

 over their surface, and these mostly slender, straight, and of uniform 

 length. Their leaves generally consist of five or seven leaflets, which 



