52 THE GARDEN OF EARTH 



middle of which — if you cut it open carefully — you 

 may find five divisions, and one or two seeds hidden 

 snugly in each. 



Then, again, there is the mode followed by stone- 

 fruit trees, belonging to this Family : such as Plums and 

 Peaches, Apricots and Cherries. These also have their 

 five sepals, their five petals, and their many stamens. 

 But with them we find only one pistil, which grows and 

 changes into a soft eatable fruit, containing inside a 

 single seed, shut firmly up within a hard protecting stone. 



Countless lesser differences run through the number- 

 less varieties of this great Order, to which we owe so 

 much. We have gone more fully into the " ways " of 

 the Rose Tribe than will be possible with others. But 

 it is well to gain a clear notion of what is generally 

 meant by such an Order or Family, and by its Sub- 

 families and relationships. 



It might make us think of the Tribes of North- 

 American Indians, which in olden days used to wander 

 over the country; each separate Tribe being divided 

 into Families, the members of which were closely 

 related, while the whole Tribe was connected, but more 

 distantly. 



" Ye Violets that first appear. 



By your pure purple mantles known, 

 Like the proud virgins of the year, 

 As if the spring were all your own — 

 What are ye when the Rose is blown ? " ^ 



" What does it take to make a Rose, 

 Mother-mine ? 

 The God that died to make it knows ; 

 It takes the world's eternal wars, 



1 Sir Henry Wotton (a.d. 1600). 



