FLOWERS AND GRASSES. 67 



ian do the strawberries. The fruit has the same 

 avour, although smaller, and the habit and foliage 

 jf the plants is almost the same. The raspberry 

 plant is a " bramble ;> as well as the blackberry, but, 

 of course, a different species. Indeed, some botanists 

 recognize so many different species of bramble that 

 it is extremely difficult to distinguish one from 

 another, but of the difference between the raspberry 

 and the blackberry there is no room for doubt. Out 

 of the forty supposed species of bramble it would be 

 fruitless to attempt to distinguish those commonly 

 found in wopds. Some of them have more pleasant 

 fruits than others, and some are more thorny than 

 others, but to us they must all remain as brambles, 

 and nothing more. 



The wild roses are almost as prolific in species as 

 the brambles, and almost as difficult for the non- 

 scientific to distinguish from each other, except, per- 

 haps, in a few strongly-marked instances. There is, 

 for instance, the sweet-briar, which is not a woodland 

 species. Then there is the common dog-rose, many 

 forms of which are found in thickets ; but for more 

 than twenty kinds of dog-rose, some say species, we 

 shall simply refer our readers to some botanical 

 manual in which they are fully described, declaring 

 simply our own faith in the " dog-rose," and leaving 

 the discovery of minor distinctions to those who have 

 the taste and leisure to pursue the investigation. 



According to old legends, the rose was created 

 without thorns, which grew on the plant in conse- 

 quence of the wickedness of man. Poetry and 

 romance, in the East and the West, are rich in 

 F 2 



