126 WOODLAND IDYLS. 



larger and more showy, but lack much of being 

 as striking as the deep crimson ones of the pink. 

 The wild rose now opening is the climbing or 

 prairie rose, 45 one of the more common and most 

 handsome of our climbing shrubs. Its leaflets 

 are three to five in number, ovate, rigid, sharply 

 serrate, dark green above, paler and somewhat 

 downy beneath. The petals are obcordate, or 

 inversely heart-shaped, and when first open a 

 deep rose pink in hue. The principal distin- 

 guishing character is, however, in the arrange- 

 ment of the styles which are united in a pro- 

 truding column instead of being separate as in 

 all other of our species. Purity and beauty 

 are exemplified in its blossoms and dark green 

 leaves; grace in its long curving stems, while 

 protection sufficient is given it by the many 

 strong scattered prickles which ward off both 

 the browsing kine and devastating human. 



Several species of bed-straw or cleavers flour- 

 ish in this old pasture and are now in the prime 

 of their blossoming period. The most common 

 one about me as I write is the shining bed- 

 straw, 46 whose low slender stems are diffusely 

 branched, the narrow one-nerved leaves all in 

 sixes and minutely pointed, and the flowers 

 white, very small, and borne on forked pedun- 

 cles. Another common species is the wild liq- 



4 *#oa setigera Michx. * Galium concinnum Torr & Gray. 



