112 WEEDS AND USEFUL PLANTS. 



ORDER XXVI. ROSA'CE^E. (ROSE FAMILY.) 



Trees, shrubs or herbs with alternate stipulate leaves, and regular flowers having a calyx of 5 

 (rarely 3-4 or 8) sepals more or less united, often with as many bracts, and petals as 

 many as the sepals, inserted with the numerous (rarely few) stamens on the calyx. Pistils 

 1-many, free, or (in the Pear tribe) united within the calyx-tube. Seeds 1 -few in each 

 ovary, without albumen ; radicle straight. 



This Order comprising about sixty genera is remarkable for the amount and variety 

 of its esculent products. Many of the fruits are valuable, and some of them eminently 

 delicious, while the type of the Order (Rosa) is by universal consent regarded as the 

 queen of beauty among flowers. A few of the drupaceous species of the Order contain a 

 dangerous quantity of Prussic Acid, in the nuts and leaves ; but the fleshy or succulent 

 fruits are, almost without exception, innocent and wholesome. 



1. THE ALMOND SUB-FAMILY. 



Ovaries solitary, free from the deciduous calyx. Style terminal. Fruit 



a drupe (stone-fruit). Trees or shrubs ; the bark exuding gum ; the 



bark, leaves and kernels possessing the peculiar flavor of prussic acid. 



Stipules free. 



Stone of the fruit rough. Petals rose-color. 1. PERSICA. 



Stone of the fruit smooth. Petals white. 



Stone flattened, with grooved edges. Skin of fruit downy. 2. ARMENIACA. 



Stone more or less flattened, generally margined. 



Fruit with a bloom. 3. PRUNFS. & 1. 



Stone roundish or globular. Fruit without a bloom. 3. PRUNUS. ^2*3 



2. THE ROSE SUB-FAMILY. 



Ovaries many or few, separate from each other and from the calyx, 



but sometimes enclosed by and concealed in its tube. Styles lateral 



or terminal. Fruit either follicles or little drupes. Herbs or shrubs, 



rarely trees, with simple or compound leaves. Stipules usually united 



with the petiole. 



Pistils 5, forming follicles in fruit. Calyx 5-cleft. Styles terminal. 4. SPIRAEA. 



Pistils numerous, forming in fruit dry akenes, tipped with the feathery 

 persistent style. Calyx bracteolate, open. 5. GEUM. 



Pistils numerous. Styles often lateral, deciduous ; fruit of dry akenes. 



Calyx bracteolate, open. 



Receptacle of the fruit dry and small. 6. POTENTILLA. 



Receptacle of the fruit becoming large and pulpy, edible. 7. FRAGARIA. 



Pistils numerous. Styles terminal, deciduous ; ovaries becoming little 

 drupes, cohering with one another or with the receptacle. Calyx 

 open, not bracteolate. 8. RUBDS. 



Pistils numerous, akenes long, enclosed in the tube of the urn-shaped 



calyx. 9. ROSA. 



3. PEAR SUB-FAMILY. 



Calyx-tube fleshy in fruit, forming a pome. Pistils 2-5, their styles 

 more or less separate, their ovaries united with each other and with 

 the tube of the calyx. 

 Cells of the fruit 1 -2-seeded. Fruit drupe-like, containing 2-5 stones. 



Leaves simple. 10. CRAT^GUS. 



Fruit with 3-5 parchment-like carpels. Leaves pinnate. Fruit berry- 

 like, scarlet. 11. PYRUS. 3. 

 Leaves simple. 



Fruit tapering to the stalk. 11. PYRUS. 1. 



Fruit sunk in at both ends. 11. PYRUS. \ 2. 



Cells of the fruit many-seeded, parchment-like, enveloped in muci- 

 lage. 12. CYDONIA. 



1. PER'SICA, Tournef. PEACH. 



[A name derived from Persia, its native country.] 



Calyx tubular, with 5 spreading segments. Drupe oval, tomentose or 



