THE ROSE. 



ishment of the plantlet until with roots and leaves of its own 

 it becomes able to provide for itself.* 



The Name, Pyrus, the Latin word for Pear, was adopted 

 by Linnasus as the title of a genus including the Pear, Apple, 

 and other trees. The specific name, Mains, is the ancient 

 Roman term for Apple. 



Scientific Terms. Adherent calyx. Adherent ovary. Annual 

 layers. Bark. Cambium. Exogenous. Excurrent trunk. Free calyx. 

 Free ovary. Germination. Heart- wood. Inferior calyx. Inferior ovary. 

 Medullary rays. Pith. Plumule. Sap-wood. Solvent trunk. Superior 

 calyx. Superior ovary. Tegmen. Testa. 



XXVIII. THE ROSE. 



Description. Among flowers the Rose reigns supreme. 

 Without it no garden, however humble, is thought complete. 

 For its dignity, fragrance, and infinitude of form and color, 

 it is interwoven with all poetry and art. f The species grow- 

 ing wild in the whole world may be 120, while the garden 

 varieties are numbered by thousands. Double Roses are the 

 delight of the florist, and very instructive ; but they are unfit 

 for regular analysis. You must bring the Wild Rose of the 

 swamp or prairie, or the Sweet Brier of the field. 



* Here the analysis of the Pear, Peach, and Cherry flowers will be in order, also 

 the Yellow Cinquefoil (Potentilla). Compare the flowers by making vertical sections, 

 and you will find striking analogies as well as contrasts. In Kaspberry, the torus 

 and its ovaries are elevated above the calyx ; in Cinquefoil, they are on a level ; in 

 Rosa (1), depressed far below it. 



t The Rose was a great favorite with the Greeks and Romans. Nero caused show- 

 ers of Roses to be sprinkled on his guests at banquets, and Heliogabalus carried this 

 to such an extent that several persons were suffocated before they could extricate 

 themselves from the mass. The Sybarites, it is said, slept on couches stuffed with 

 Rose petals. This flower was dedicated to the god of silence, and a Rose hanging 

 over a guest-table was a hint that conversation was to be "sub-rosa." It was cus- 

 tomary for wreaths of Roses to be worn by warriors, while Rose-leaves (petals) were 

 strewn on the dishes on festal occasions, and the bushes were planted on graves as a 

 mark of respect and love. In later times the Rose was especially dedicated to the 

 Virgin, and in Dante's Paradise she is termed the " Mystic Rose." 



