CHAPTEE VII. 

 ROSACES. 



" Where do the Wisdom and the Power Divine 

 In a more bright and sweet reflection shine ? 

 Where do we finer strokes and colours see 

 Of the Creator's real poetry, 

 Than when we with attention look 

 Upon the third day's volume of the book ? 

 If we could open, and extend our eye, 

 We all, like Moses, should espy 

 E'en in a bush the radiant Deity." 



COWLET. 



THE EOSE order, like the Leguminous, requires to be divided 

 into groups, distinguished from one another by the form and 

 structure of the fruit, A four or five-lobed permanent calyx, 

 five petals, and numerous stamens, are the characteristics of the 

 whole order. A simple seed or kernel enclosed in a hard case, 

 and surrounded by juicy pulp, distinguishes the Almond group ; 

 a collection of seed-vessels opening at the side distinguishes the 

 Meadow Sweet group ; numerous carpels, fastened into a recep- 

 tacle either fleshy or dry, characterise the Strawberry group ; 

 seeds enclosed within a hardened calyx mark the Burnet 

 group ; nut-like seeds in a fleshy tube the Rose group ; while, 

 in the Apple group, the seeds are contained in horny cells. 



To begin with the Almond group. The first family is that 

 of the Plum and Cherry. 



The Wild Cherry (Prunus cerasus, Plate VIL, fig. 10), 

 abounds in Kent ; it is a beautiful object when covered with 

 its sheet of snowy blossoms, and scarcely less so in its autumnal 

 garb of deep crimson foliage. It grows very abundantly in the 

 woods about Eichmond also. There are two varieties one 

 bearing red and one black berries ; but between the birds and 

 the boys no fruit has been left to ripen upon the trees within 

 my range of observation. But never have I seen such Cherry- 



