6 FAMILIAR WILD FLOWERS. 



The field-rose is ordinarily a much more trailing plant 

 than the common dog-rose, a feature that distinguishes it 

 in a marked degree from all our other wild roses. The 

 general form of the leaves is much the same as in the 

 dog-rose, hut they are often rather smaller and more 

 shining in surface ; the prickles, too, are somewhat 

 smaller in size, but more hooked. The flowers are 

 white, with comparatively little or no scent, and though 

 at times solitary, are more commonly found in small 

 bunches of three or four at the ends of the branchlets. 

 It will readily be understood that these small bunches 

 rarely consist entirely of expanded flowers, but more 

 ordinarily of buds and blossoms in various stages of 

 development. The fruit is much more globular in form 

 than that of the common dog-rose, which is ordinarily 

 described as resembling a small flask. The field-rose is 

 very widely distributed throughout England, but is much 

 more sparingly met with in Scotland and Ireland. It 

 ordinarily comes into blossom somewhat later in the 

 summer than the dog-rose, and may also be found for 

 some time after that species has ceased to bear its 

 flowers. From the profusion of its blossom it is a great 

 ornament, not only when the hedgerow is laden with 

 its long trailing stems and beautiful flowers, but also 

 later on, in the autumn, when these flowers have passed 

 away, and are replaced by the scarlet fruit, the " hips," 

 as these and other wild rose seeds are called, a word 

 derived from hiope, their Anglo-Saxon name. The fruit 

 of the sweet-briar, an allied species, is egg-shaped, its 

 broader part being uppermost or farthest from the stem. 

 The stems of the various kinds of wild rose may often 

 be found tufted with curious little balls of crimson moss. 



