THE KOBE FAMILY. 



193 



LIII.— ^THE ROSE FAMILY. Rosdcecs. 



Chiefly perennial, herbaceous plants, only a few genera being 

 shrubby, and scarcely any species arborescent. Stems in the shrubby 

 kinds often clothed with acute and curved prickles, which extend 

 to the petioles, to the under side of the veins of the leaves, and 

 to the peduncles. Leaves alternate, usually stipulate, either com- 

 pound and pinnate, or somewhat quinate ; or simple, and then either 

 ternate, pmnatifid, or undivided. Many, like the Sanguisorbas in the 

 Lady's-Mantle Family (page 186), have the leaves "interruptedly pin- 

 nate," a peculiarity of form represented in Fig. 127. Flowers regular, 



Fig. 127. 



Fig. 129. 

 Thorns of Rose. 



Fig. 128. 



pentamerous, calyx often ten-cleft ; petals five ; stamens twenty to a 

 hundred, inserted on the calyx, and curved inwards while young ; the 

 ovaries equally numerous, and free. In the true roses the calyx is 

 tubular and urn-shaped at the lower part, enclosing the ovaries and 

 styles, while the upper part spreads into five, often pinnatifid, divisions, 

 making it appear as if the flower were epigynous or " superior." Many 

 species are highly fragrant; red, white, and yellow are the predo- 

 minant colours ; blue is altogether unknown. The cinquefoils and 

 several others bear a good deal of resemblance to ranunculaceous 

 plants, and to buttercups especially. They are immediately dis- 

 tinguished by their stamens being inserted on the calyx, those of the 

 Ranunculacese being seated on the receptacle. The only important 

 exceptions to the above characters occur in the tormentils, which 

 usually have tetramerous flowers, and in agrimony, where the stamens 

 rarely exceed ten. The peculiarly elegant and symmetrical form of 



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