92 



' I love it, for it takes its untouched stand, 

 Not in the vase that sculptors decorate ; 

 Its sweetness all is of my native land, 

 And e'en its fragrant leaf has not its mate 

 Among the perfumes which the rich and great 

 Buy from the odours of the spicy East. 

 You love your flowers and plants, and will you hate 

 The little five-leaved Rose that I love best, 

 That freshest will awake, and sweetest go to rest ?" Brainard. 



COMMON DOG ROSE. Rosa canina. 

 Plate 6, fig. 20. 



The Dog Rose, or Wild Rose, is common in every hedge, and 

 in every thicket, bringing out its abundant, large, whitish, or 

 pink flowers, in June a fit successor to the beautiful Hawthorn, 

 and accompanying in the winter the red haws of the latter with 

 its fleshy, pleasantly-acid, red fruit, known by the name of hips 

 grateful not only to us, but a valuable winter store for the 

 many little songsters of the hedges and the woods. 



It is known from the other Roses of England by the prickles, 

 which are all hooked the leaves, which are without hairs, the 

 upper or ending leaflet of them generally having its point a little 

 twisted back. Shoots very long and straggling, and fruit red, 

 oval, a little narrowed upwards, and without a calyx. 



I know not that this particular species of Rose has called 

 forth many poetic reflections. The following, however, is 



pleasing : 



" 'Tis the Rose of the desert, 



So lonely and wild, 

 On the green leaf of freedom 



Its infancy smiled. 

 In the languish of beauty 



It buds o'er the thorn, 

 And its leaves are all wet 



With the bright dews of morn. 

 " Yet 'tis better, thou fair one, 



To dwell thus alone, 

 Than recline on a bosom 



Less pure than thy own. 

 Thy form is too lovely 



To be torn from its stem, 

 And thy breath is too sweet 



For the children of men ! 

 " Bloom on then in secret, 



Sweet child of the waste ! 

 Where no lip of profaner 



Thy fragrance shall taste. 

 Bloom on where no footstep 



Unhallowed hath trod, 

 And give all thy blushes 



And sweets to thy GOD !" 



