SWEET BRIAR 19 



word Rhamrius being derived from the Greek word for 

 branch, in allusion to the branching spreading growth of 

 the plant, while the specific name bears testimony to its 

 cathartic medicinal properties. To entomologists the plant 

 is of interest as being the food-plant of the caterpillar of 

 the Brimstone butterfly, the Gonopteryx rhamni. This is 

 that common and beautiful sulphur-coloured butterfly, 

 which, though emerging from the chrysalis in Summer, 

 hybernates in some sheltered spot, and comes out to 

 gladden our eyes in the bright Springtime, when a day 

 of sunshine and increasing warmth tempts it forth. 



SWEET BRIAR (Rosa Rubiginosa) 



The various kinds of wild roses that deck our 

 hedgerows in the Summer with their fragrant and delicate 

 blossoms, contribute no less to their adornment in the 

 Autumn, when their scarlet " hips " are welcome items 

 in the general wealth of colour of fruit and foliage so 

 characteristic of that season of the year. One of the 

 most charming of this goodly company is the sweet briar, 

 of which Plate III. gives us an illustration in its fruiting 

 stage. 



The stems of the plant, and the under-surfaces of the 

 leaves, are abundantly supplied with small glands, and 

 these yield, when pressed, the aromatic scent that gives 

 the shrub its best-known name. An alternative name is 

 the eglantine, and this is the one that is generally bestowed 

 on it by the poets. The name has a poetic ring about 

 it, but its origin is very obscure, and if we accept it as 

 referring to the rather specially prickly nature of the 



