STUDIES OF PLANT LIFE 



A popular song in the days of Charles I. was that begin- 

 ning with the lines 



" Gather your roses while you may, 



For time is still a flying, 

 And that same flower that blooms to-day 

 To-morrow may be dying." 



The leaves of Rosa blanda are pale underneath; leaflets 

 five to seven; flowers blush-pink; stem not very prickly; 

 fruit red and round; the bush from one to three feet in 

 height. 



DWAEP WILD ROSE R. lucida (Ehrh.), 



is widely diffused over Canada; it is found on all open 

 plain-lands, but shuns the deep shade of the forest. The 

 bark is of a bright red, and the young wood is armed with 

 bristly prickles of a grayish color. When growing in shade 

 the half-opened flowers and buds are of a deep pink or 

 carmine, but where more exposed in sunny spots the petals 

 fade to a pale blush-color. This shrub becomes somewhat 

 troublesome if encouraged in the garden, owing to the run- 

 ning roots sending up many shoots. In its wild state the 

 Dwarf Eose seldom exceeds three feet in height; it is the 

 second and older wood that bears the flowers; the flower- 

 bearing branches become almost smooth or only remotely 

 thorny. The leaflets vary in number from five to nine ; they 

 are sharply serrated at the edges and smooth on the surface ; 

 the globular scarlet fruit is flattened at the eye and is of a 

 pleasant sub-acid taste. 



This beautiful red-barked rose grows in great profusion 

 on the plains above Eice Lake, clothing large tracts of hill 

 and dale and scenting the evening air at dew-fall with its 

 delicate fragrance. 



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