CLASS XII. ORDER III.] ROSA. 715 



a few slender hairs are scattered over them ; the calyx segments re- 

 flexed, pinnated, with narrow elongated simple or toothed pinncBy 

 smooth or glandulous, clothed with a soft down within, and on the 

 margins. Petals broadly obcordate, white, or of a more or less deep 

 pink. Disk thickened. Styles hairy. Stigmas protruded in a globose 

 mass. Fruit smooth, shining, scarlet, ovate elliptic, or oblong, soft 

 and pulpy when ripe, with a pleasant acid flavour. 



Habitat. — Thickets, hedges, &c. ; very common. 



Shrub; flowering in June and July. 



This is our commonest species of wild Rose, growing in most parts 

 of the country in the greatest profusion, and upon all kinds of soil, and 

 in almost every variety of situation, from which circumstance it is not 

 surprising that we meet with a great inconstancy in its characters and 

 appearance. The strong erect shoots which it often puts up are much 

 used by gardeners for grafting different species of Roses upon, for the 

 purpose of making standard Rose trees, and sometimes we have seen 

 many different species of Roses all blooming from one stock. This 

 plan of cultivating the Rose for ornamenting lawns and open pleasure 

 grounds is very pretty, and it is also extremely useful in blooming rare 

 and delicate species. The pulp of the fruit is used for making a 

 conserve, which is agreeably acid, and sometimes brought to table on 

 the Continent as dessert. When boiling water is poured upon it, and 

 then strained, it forms a pleasant cooling drink in fevers, &c. ; and 

 taken alone, it is found useful in allaying the irritation of sore throats, 

 &c. The flowers of many of the varieties are delicately coloured, 

 as though 



" Touch'd so tenderly 



As a pure ocean shell, with faintest red, 



Melting away to pearliness !" 



15. R. hracte*scensj Woods. (Fig. 811.) Bracteated Dog Rose. 

 " Calyx tube globose ; prickles hooked ; leaflets simply serrated, downy 

 beneath ; bracteas overtopping the fruit." 



English Flora, vol. ii. p. 392.— Hooker, British Flora, ed. 3. vol. i. 

 p. 342. — R. <Z«7ne/orwm.—Lindley, Synopsis, p. 102. 



" Mr. Woods describes this shrub as six or seven feet high, with 

 diffuse branches. Prickles more numerous, more slender, and less 

 curved than usual in the group to which it belongs. Petioles downy, 

 without glands, rarely without prickles. Leaflets elliptical, hairy 

 above, as well as downy beneath. Peduncles bare, or more rarely 

 with few and feeble seta. Styles included; head of 5%mas conical, 

 fruit globose. He chiefly depends on the shape of ihe fruit, the mass 

 of very woolly sttjles, and the immense bracteas to distinguish it as a 

 species." 



Habitat. — ''About Ulverston, Lancashire; and a var. with nearly 

 smooth stipules and glandulous calyx segments, at Ambleside, West- 

 moreland." — Woods. 



Shrub ; flowering in June and July. 



