Beautiful Flowering Shrubs 



the cup embedded in white hairs. They are quite 

 ready for fertilisation when the bud opens, but the 

 stamens surrounding have not yet matured their pollen, 

 and are in any case leaning well away from the centre 

 of the flower. Now is the best chance for cross-fertilisa- 

 tion, which is usually effected by some honey-bee lured by 

 the fragrance, honey and colour. Later the stamens 

 mature and gradually rise and bend right over towards 

 the middle of the flower. During these hours the visit- 

 ing bees carry away pollen with them, and also these 

 stamens necessarily drop their pollen on to the stigmas 

 of their own flowers, and so fertilise them if they are 

 not already fertilised. 



Lord Penzance's researches seemed to show that when 

 the Sweet Brier blossom was fertilised with the pollen 

 of other Roses, the hybrid seedling retained all the 

 leaf fragrance of the Sweet Brier, and this was rarely, 

 if ever, the case if Sweet Brier pollen were used to 

 fertilise the blossom of another Rose. 



The flowering season of the Penzance Briers is greatly 

 extended beyond that of the ordinary Sweet Brier, 

 indeed odd blossoms may be found up to the very end 

 of the autumn. The brilliancy, too, does not cease with 

 the full flowering, for a crop of large scarlet hips follows 

 upon the fading of the blossoms. 



As a hedge the ordinary Sweet Brier has always 



been welcomed in our gardens. Was not the Sleeping 



176 



