2 2 THE FRUITS OF THE COUNTRY-SIDE 



common that one old name of the dog-rose is the canker- 

 rose. It is a morbid growth, an excrescence produced by 

 the puncture of an insect. On cutting it open we find 

 within it several cavities and in each of these a maggot. 

 This morbid development was by the older writers called 

 bedeguar, and, like most other things, was held of medicinal 

 value. 



FIELD-ROSE (Rosa Arvensis) 



The field-rose, the subject of our fourth illustration, 

 is somewhat less common than the dog-rose, though in 

 many parts of England and Ireland it is abundantly to be 

 encountered. In Scotland it is much less freely seen. It 

 flowers at a rather different period, for though there is a 

 time common to both when the dog-rose and field-rose are 

 flowering together, the first is in bloom earlier than this and 

 the second later. The field-rose trails many feet with its 

 slender branches. This is a feature so marked that the 

 plant is sometimes called the trailing dog-rose. Its leaves 

 are shining, prickles small, flowers white, and with little or 

 no scent. They cluster together more than the blossoms 

 of the dog-rose or sweet briar, and the fruit is nearly 

 globular. Another distinctive feature is that the calyx 

 segments which we see very markedly crowning the wild 

 briar hip, fall off in the present plant, giving at once a very 

 different appearance. A glance from our third illustration 

 to our fourth will make this point very evident. The 

 sweet briar is in botanical parlance the Rosa rubiginosa, 

 the dog-rose the R. canina, and the field-rose the 

 R. arvensis. 



Those who would desire to dry plants, or at least their 



