60 FAMILIAR FEATURES OF THE ROADSIDE. 



thorns. The stipules are usually narrow, and, Gray 

 says, in a few instances somewhat dilated. The leaf- 

 lets are also larger, thinner, and dull green. The 



flowers are very often 

 solitary and the sepals 

 are nearly always lobed. 

 The early wild rose 

 (Rosa blandd) is 

 characterized by its 

 thornless stems ; only 

 occasionally it is found 

 with a few and very 

 rarely with numerous 

 straight, weak thorns. 

 It grows on stony banks 

 and beside rocks, and its 

 stem is from one to 

 three feet high. Its leaf 

 is composed of from five 



to seven somewhat wedge-shaped and blunt leaflets, 

 pale in color and a trifle hoary beneath ; the stipules 

 are large and plain-edged, or rarely they are slightly 

 toothed. The light-pink flowers are large and bloom 

 in late spring or early summer ; they are either soli- 

 tary or grow two or three in a cluster ; the fruit is 

 nearly globular. Rosa ~blanda is distributed locally 

 through New England, and is common in central 



Rosa humilis. 



