130 RO'SA CANI'NA EXAMINED. 



MOTHER. 



Exactly so. This character of the flower in the 

 class Icosandria is very important ; as it indicates, 

 almost certainly, that the pulpy fruit, which comes 

 after the flower, is wholesome. No traveller in an 

 unknown wilderness need be afraid to eat the fruit 

 of any plant whose stamens grow upon the calyx : 

 but the other parts should be carefully avoided, 

 for in some species they are poisonous.* 



The plant that we shall examine to-day, is a 

 Rose, which belongs to the genus Ro'sa, in the 

 order Polygynia; and as there are several native 

 species, I will at once tell you that this is the com- 

 mon Dog-rose, Ro'sa cani'na. [PLATE 14.] 



" The cup in this genus is of one leaf; with five 

 " divisions in its border, which are narrow and 

 " sharp-pointed. The blossom has five heart- 

 " shaped petals, as long as the cup, and fixed to its 

 " neck." You recollect, that in this class, the pre- 

 cise number of the stamens is not material ; but 

 there are more than twenty. The filaments are 

 short, and fixed to the sides of the calyx. There is 

 no seed-vessel; but the cup itself swells into a berry, 

 which is generally of a bright red colour, when 

 ripe, and contains a great many oblong seeds rough 

 with stiff hairs. It is this cup which forms the 

 principal distinction of the genus Ro'sa : its shape 



* Smith's Introduction to Botany, 5th edition, p. 3 1 7. 



