92 Bulletin 145 



the modern pharmacopaea. The forked branches of the witch- 

 hazel were formerly much used as "divining- rods" in searching 

 for hidden springs of water or deposits of ore, a use reflected in 

 its common name. 



ROSE FAMILY. ROSACEAE 1 



This is the most numerous family of native shrubs as well 

 as the most useful. More than forty species and varieties are 

 listed in the following pages and it is to be remembered in jus- 

 tice to the family's importance that it includes in addition a 

 dozen or more native trees and a much larger number of her- 

 baceous plants. The rose family has given us nearly all of the 

 finest fruits of the temperate zone as well as the favorites among 

 the woody ornamental plants. One needs on!}? a partial list to 

 realize the value to man of this one family. It includes among 

 the fruits, the apple, pear, quince, peach, plum, cherry, almond, 

 raspberry, blackberry, strawberry. Among the ornamentals are 

 the rose, hawthorn, spiraea, nine-bark, flowering quinces and 

 almonds ; and to this list might be added an indefinitely 

 long list of lesser importance. The value of these plants 

 economically is much enhanced by their variability. In the 

 rose family we frequently find nature in the process of species 

 making, that is to say the plants are in a variable or plastic 

 <tate, not yet stable and finished products. This gives the 

 horticulturist his opportunity to select and shape at pleasure, 

 as we see in the countless varieties of the rosaceous flowers and 

 fruits listed above, many of them (e. g. all the apples} derived 

 from a single species. But for the botanist of classical type who 

 is happy in proportion to the exactness of his system of classi- 

 fication, this family offers problems at every turn. The com- 

 mon roses and blackberries may puzzle even an expert and the 



' Mr. W. W. Eggleston carefully edited this account of the rose ' 

 family and prepared the descriptions and keys in the more critical ! 

 genera, including the blackherry-raspberry group (Rubus) the rose, ' 

 the thornapple and the shad-bush. • 



