22 The Romance of Wild Flowers 
from the Rose-grower’s point of view are those that 
are least fitted to produce seed. For the really perfect 
Rose we must look not to the beds of the Rose- 
garden, but to the thick untrimmed hedges, and the 
bosky wastes where the Wild Roses (Rosa arvensis 
and Rosa canina) exhibit their less pretentious 
beauty. <A careful examination of a few of these 
Wild Roses will help us to understand how and why 
the Gloire de Dyon and the Marshal Neil are 
monstrosities, and it will give us insight into the 
main features of flower-structure. 
I cut a long spray from the scrambling plant, 
and in doing so manage to get the 
skin of my finger cut through 
by one of the sharp dagger- 
like prickles, which are said to 
have suggested the name Dag 
Rose —though some contend it 
was always Dog Rose, to mark 
its inferiority to the cultivated 
Roses. Where I cut through the 
Wild Rose branch, you will see there is a 
little hard wood which was formed last year; the 
newer end is soft and green, though tough and stringy 
when I try to break it. This woody character of the 
stem denotes a tree or shrub, and as these Rose-plants 
do not grow tall enough, nor have sufficiently stout 
trunks to be called trees, they are shrubs. Now, 
looking along this spray from end to end, we see that, 
in addition to the hooked prickles, it bears leaves and 
flowers—very dissimilar things, yet those who have 
made a very careful study of the matter will tell 
you that in their origin they are very similar, in fact, 
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