6 4 



BRITISH FLOWERING PLANTS 



The flowers also are somewhat similar, though 

 larger ; but the fruit is very different, consisting of 

 a tough calyx-tube enclosing a number of seeds 

 surrounded with stiff and sometimes almost bristly 

 hairs ; this pod is called a hip. As in the case 

 of the Blackberry, there are a great number of 

 varieties or closely allied species resembling the 

 Dog-rose, which are the despair of botanists. The 

 slender stem grows from 3 to 9 feet in height, and 

 is set with strong hooked thorns. The stem and 

 branches are enclosed in a reddish-green bark. 

 The leaf-stalks are furnished with glands, and on 

 the lower surface with thorns. The leaves are 

 compound, and are composed of from 7 to 9 

 leaflets, which are oval, pointed, and irregularly 

 serrated on the margins. The leaves are smooth 

 and dark green above, but more bluish green 

 below. The flower is simple, of moderate size, with 

 heart-shaped, indented petals, and sweet-scented. 

 The flowers vary from white to pink, and the in- 

 terior is white or yellow. The stamens are short, 

 and of the sepals ^2 are pinnate, 2 not pinnate, and 

 1 pinnate on one side only. The ovary is smooth 



and oval. The fruit is oval, smooth and shining, 

 and of a bright scarlet when ripe. The seeds are 

 yellowish, and very hard. 



Among the other Wild Roses the most remark- 

 able are the Sweetbriar {Rosa Eglanteria), with 

 rather small pink flowers, and leaves which exhale 

 a delicious odour when bruised ; and the Burnet 

 Rose (Rosa sfihiosissima), a low-growing, very 

 prickly plant, with pink or white flowers, and red 

 or black hips. It is common in many places on 

 the sea-shore. 



A great number of interesting insects feed on 

 the Wild Roses, as well as on those of our gardens. 

 One of the most brilliantly coloured of our British 

 beetles is called the Rose Chafer (Cetonia aurata), 

 because it likes to settle on Roses as well as on 

 other flowers, to devour the pollen. It is nearly an 

 inch long, and almost as broad, and has rather short 

 antennse, apparently knobbed at the end, but really 

 terminating in a series of closely appressed lamellae. 

 It is bright metallic green above, with a few small 

 white markings on the wing-cases, and coppery 

 beneath. Its larva lives in the ground on decaying 



