(S^ i. '4'— -A 't*3^ '^^ -r^*^ — T^s^ 





Chapter XXIII. 



Order XXIII.— ROSACEiE. The Rose Family. 



CHARiCTER OF THE Ordee. — Herbs, shrubs, or trees, 

 erect or climbing; stems sometimes prickly or spinose. Leaves 

 alternate, simple or compound, stipulate. Flowers regular, 

 usually hermaphrodite ; calyx-tube short and open, or urceolate 

 aud enclosing the carpels ; lobes, 1 or 5, or none, often valvate. 

 Petals, 4 or 5, rarely none, spreading, imbricate. Stamens 

 numerous, few in Accena, free, inserted on a perigynous ring 

 or on the mouth of the calyx-tube ; filaments subulate ; anthers 



short, didymous. Carpels, 1 or more, 1-celled, small, enclosed 

 in the calyx-tube, or free and clustered on a torus ; style, 

 lateral, basal, or terminal ; stigma capitate ; ovules, 1 or 2. 

 Fruit, of 1 or more small achenes, free or enclosed in the 

 calyx-tube, or of many stnall, free succulent drupes. Seeds 

 ex-albuminous ; testa membranous ; cotyledons plano-convex, 

 radicle, short. — Sandbooh of the New Zealand Floi'a, p. 53. 



Description of the Order. — 



LARGE order very widely distributed throughout the world, whicli has been 

 divided into the following sub-orders : — Rosece, Poieiitillece, SangitisorbecB, 

 Amygdalece, Sjnrfeece, and Foniece. Many of the plants of the order yield 

 edible fruits, such as raspberries, strawlierries, brambles, plums, apples, 

 pears, quinces, cherries, almonds, peaches, nectarines and apricots. Some 

 are astringent, others yield prussic acid. The above ordinal character 

 applies chiefly to the New Zealand genera. In some tribes (which do not occur in these 

 islands), the calyx is apparently inferior, and otherwise differs from the character given 

 above. The genera peculiar to New Zealand consist of: — (1.) RuBus, a shrub, with 

 climbing prickly stems ; (2.) Potentilla, a herb, with pinnate leaves ; (3.) Geum, 

 herbs, with simple or pinnate leaves ; (4.) Acen^, herbs, with pinnate leaves. 



®li!,<^(y ifr 







