ORDER POLYGYNIA. 237 



are indigenous to North America ; as the small wild rose, the 

 sweet briar, and swamp rose. Red and white roses are re- 

 markable in English history as emblems of the houses of York 

 and Lancaster ; for when those families contended for the 

 crown, in the reign of Henry the sixth, the white rose distin- 

 guished the partizans of the house of York, and the red those 

 of Lancaster. Among the nations of the east, particularly in 

 Persia, the rose flourishes in great beauty and is highly valued* 

 The Persians poetically imagine a peculiar sympathy between 

 the rose and the nightingale. 



The Blackberry (Rubus), has a flower resembling the rose 

 in general aspect ; there are several species of the Rubus, one 

 which produces the common blackberry, another the red rasp- 

 berry, another the black raspberry, and another the dewberry. 

 One species, the odoratus, produces large and beautiful red 

 flowers, the fruit of which, is dry and not eatable. 



. The Strawberry belongs to the same natural and artificial 

 order as the Rose. The gathering of strawberries in the 

 fields, is among the rural enjoyments of children, which are 

 in after life, recollected with pleasure, not unfrequently mingled 

 with melancholy reflections, upon the contrast of that happy 

 season, with the sorrows, with which maturer years are 

 shaded. The fruit of the strawberry, as was remarked in the 

 classification of fruits, is not really a berry, but a collection of 

 seeds, imbedded in a fleshy receptacle, 



Icosandria furnishes us with a great variety of fine fruits, 

 more perhaps than any other of the artificial classes. A 

 great proportion of the genera to be found in this class, are 

 natives of the United States. 



Blackberry Strawberry. 



