TEE FIELD-ROSE. 1 



These result from the puncture of a small Insect, in much 

 the same way as the galls of the oak are formed. In 

 the Middle Ages these rose-galls were held in high repute 

 in medicine, under the name of bedeguar, but this repute 

 has, in these later days, gone the way of much else of the 

 wisdom of those early times. 



Five forms of rose are sufficiently distinct to present 

 no difficulty in their identification by the amateur botanist 

 the dog-rose, the field-rose, the sweet-briar, the burnet 

 rose, and the downy rose. The first two of these need no 

 further comment. The sweet-briar, or R. rubiginosa, will 

 ordinarily be readily recognised by the well-known odour 

 of its foliage. It is chiefly found in the South of England, 

 and appears to thrive best on the chalk. It is sometimes 

 cultivated in gardens for its fragrance a fragrance that 

 is often very faint in wild specimens. The buriiet rose is 

 the R. spinosissiuia. The specific name signifies exceed- 

 ingly prickly, the Latin superlative being used to give 

 emphasis to the painful fact that all its stems are armed 

 with numerous straight thorns. The flowers are rather 

 small, and usually solitary. The whole plant rarely attains 

 to more than a foot or so in height, and is generally found 

 either on waste land near the sea, or more seldom on dry 

 heath-clad hills inland. The fruit is so deep a purple as 

 to appear almost black. It has been used in the prepara- 

 tion of dye, and gives a beautiful violet, though, like most 

 vegetable colours, it is too fugitive in its nature to be of 

 real economic value. It is called the burnet rose, because, 

 its leaves being small, and having seven or nine leaflets to 

 each leaf, are very similar in general form to those of a 

 plant called the burnet. The downy rose, R. villosa, is so 

 called from the downy texture of both sides of the leaves ; 



