WILD ROSES 185 
Just imagine how our meals would be modified if the 
fruits of the rose tribe disappeared. Gooseberries and 
~ eurrants would remain outside the pale, and so would 
grapes, but apples, pears, cherries, plums, raspberries, 
blackberries, etc., would be swept away, and we should 
find it very hard to replace them. However, there is 
certainly no present sign of disappearance. In fact, it 
is much more likely that their use will increase, for we 
may reasonably hope that before long the blackberry 
will be brought under careful cultivation, and show as 
striking a development as the tiny strawberry of the 
woods. 
Beautiful and useful as they are, they do not display 
many striking features from the botanical point of view. 
As a family, they have few eccen- 
tricities. The pretty little Tormentil, 
for some reason or other, has dis- 
pensed with the fifth petal, and 
bears a bright yellow cross, but has 
the typical Potentilla leaf and a 
large number of stamens, so that 
there is no fear of mistaking it for 
one of the Crucifers, which we shall 
soon have to discuss. The only 
other striking deviation from family 
type is the case of the Lady’s 
Mantles and the Burnets, which 
make no effort to attract insects 
by conspicuous flowers, and have 
dropped the corolla altogether. The commonest of 
these is the Salad Burnet, the flowers of which we 
will consider more closely. They grow in a clustered 
knob, and look something like a Ribwort Plantain, but 
TORMENTIL. 
