ROSACE.^— ROSE TElBE 209 



offer the most singular instance of spontaneous action exhibited by any 

 vegetable, save by some microscopic plants. 



Order XXVI. ROSACEA— ROSE TRIBE. 



Calyx with 4 or 5 divisions, or twice as many, in 2 rows; petals 5, 

 regular, inserted on the calyx; stamens generally more than 12, but inde- 

 finite in number, inserted on the calyx, curved inwards before the expansion 

 of the petals ; carpels many, or solitary, either distinct or combined with 

 each other and with the calyx ; styles distinct, often lateral ; fruit either a 

 drupe, as the Cherry, an assemblage of erect capsules opening at the side, 

 a number of nut-like seeds inserted into a fleshy receptacle, as the Straw- 

 berry, or the seeds are enclosed in the fleshy tube of the calyx, as in the 

 Kosc, or lie in the midst of a fleshy substance, and form a pome, as in the 

 Apple. 



This very large and important Order contains herbs, shrubs, and trees, 

 natives chiefly of the temperate or cold climates of the Northern Hemisphere. 

 The fruits are, in all our British species, wholesome and mostly agreeable ; 

 but many of the plants which furnish them are poisonous, from the hydro- 

 cyanic or prussic acid contained in their leaves, bark, flowers, and seeds. To this 

 Order belong our Apples, Cherries, Raspberries, Strawberries, and a variety 

 of other valuable fruits ; and Almonds, Peaches, Nectarines, and the Apricot, 

 which the Persians call the Seed of the Sun, are among the rosaceous fruits 

 introduced into our gardens. The valuable evergreens, the Cherry Laurels 

 and Portugal Laurels, are also familiar instances of shrubs of this Order, and 

 contain the poisonous principle to a great extent in their leaves. These 

 leaves should be used in confectionery with great caution, as the dangerous 

 principle contained in Laurel-water has proved fatal in some cases. The 

 fruit, however, of the Cherry Laurel is quite harmless, though not of parti- 

 cularly good flavour. This plant was first introduced into England from 

 Asia Minor, and called the Date of Trebizond, from the use of its berries 

 in that city, in the neighbourhood of which it grows wild. Roses, Hawthorn, 

 Flowering Plum, Apple, and other trees, are also among the fragrant and 

 delightful plants furnished by this Order to the garden. 



The plants of the Rose Tribe afford, by their variously formed fruits, a 

 facility of arrangement to the botanist, and are divided into five sub-orders, 

 or groups. 



Suh-Order I. Almond Group (Amygdalece). 



In this group the calyx is inferior, and soon falls off"; the pistil is solitary ; 

 and the frvxit, when ripe, is a drupe — that is, a fleshy or juicy pulp, with an 

 external rind or cuticle, and one seed in the midst enclosed in a hard case. 

 They are shrubs or trees, with simple leaves, and stipules free from the leaf- 

 stalk ; the bark often yields gum, and prussic acid usually abounds in the 

 seeds and leaves. The Laurel belongs to this group, as does the beautiful 

 Almond-tree, the first in the spring to adorn our shrubberies with its flowers, 

 and which is connected with the associations both of Sacred Writ and of 



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