110 



Bulletin 145 



from Europe into the early New England gardens, for the flow- 

 ers although pretty are scarcely more attractive than some of 

 our natives. This is sometimes called "Eglantine," although 

 thai name more properly belongs to another closely related Euro- 

 pean species. Being a normal fertile blossom it seeds abundant- 

 ly, and as a result it has become so frequent in rocky pastures 

 near old homesteads as to be almost a characteristic of them. 

 The mossy galls so often found on the branches are caused by 

 the sting of an insect. 



THE SWAMP ROSE. Rosa Carolina L. 

 When one comes upon a characteristic colony of this rose in 

 full blossom occupying the front ranks of a water-side thicket, its 

 profusion of pink flowers banked against the dark green of 

 alder and the varnished sprays of the shining willow, or the sheen 

 of the rarer silky willow leaves, it is a picture for long memory. 

 Although either of our other native species may occur in moist 

 soil, this is the one which is characteristically at home along the 

 borders of swamps and streams. This fact, and the further 

 one that the stems are usually tall, often shoulder high, make 

 its general recognition easy. 



Rosa humilis Marsh. 



This is the most common 

 wild rose of Vermont pastures 

 and waysides. Its characteris- 

 tic habitat is dry soil or rocky 

 slopes. The stems are usually 

 low, one to three feet high, 

 slender, armed with straigb.t 

 slender prickles. The pink 

 flowers of this and the other 

 two natives are so similar 

 in size and general appearance 

 that one must turn for care- 

 ful differentiation to less con- 

 spicuous characters. Those of 

 leaf margins and stipules 



THE PASTURE ROSE. 



1, Pasture Rose, fruit; 



2, Smooth Rose, fruit; 



3, 4, Swamp R., stipules and leaflet; 

 5, 6, Pasture R., ditto. All X %. 



