244 THE ROSE FAMILY. 



CHEROKEE ROSE. 



Rosa IcEvigdta. 



FAMILY COLOUR ODOUR RANGE TIME OF BLOOM 



Rose. White. Scentless. In cultivation. May. 



Floivers: large; solitary at the ends of the branchlcts. Calyx-tube: uni- 

 shaped; very bristly, its lobes spreading and pubescent. Petals: five, large; 

 spreading; rounded. Stamens: numerous; inserted on the disk. Leaves: com- 

 pound; odd-pinnate with mostly three lanceolate, or oblong leaflets; finely ser- 

 rate ; bright green and glossy above, lighter below ; smooth, persistent. Spines : 

 small ; curved and extending along the under side ot the mid-vein. Stem : trail- 

 ing; prickly; smooth. 



Who of the south does not know the Cherokee rose and regard it with fond 

 admiration as it climbs, retwines and doubles itself over hedges, or up the 

 sides of cabins and transforms them into flowery bowers almost unrivalled in 

 beauty. And yet, although so widely distributed through the southern Atlan- 

 tic and gulf states, the rose is not known to occur there in a wild state and 

 just how it came to be so abundant in the former country of the Cherokee In- 

 dians is a question only partly solved. As truly wrapped in mystery is the 

 history of its occupancy of the soil as that of the people whose name it bears. 

 Should, however, the theory be true that the Chinese first inhabited this 

 country, it may have been planted by them, for in parts of China as well as 

 Japan what is probably the same species is conspicuous among the flora. 



i?. Carolina, swamp rose, leisurely opens and lets flare to the mid-summer 

 air its deep pink blossoms, abundantly grouped in a terminal corymb or 

 rarely solitary. Of the individual ones it is noticed that the petals at the 

 apices are deeply and broadly notched while the calyx with its long-pointed 

 lobes is covered with short bristles. The leaves are finely serrate. Long after 

 the bloom has past the bush is still made attractive by the large, bright red 

 and slightly hispid fruits which load it in the autumn. It is a bushy plant 

 growing from one to eight feet high, the stems of which are armed with 

 stout, recurved spines. 



• R. hiimilis, pasture rose, has also pink flowers, the five spreading petals 

 of which are rounded or slightly emarginate at their apices. Very fre- 

 quently they are produced singly, although their natural habit is to grow in 

 few-flowered clusters. The plant is low and erect and the stems bear but 

 few prickles which are straight and slender. 



R. setigera, prairie rose, is indigenous from Florida and Texas to West 

 Virginia and southern Ontario, westward. In Virginia and New Jersey it is 

 sometimes seen as an escape from cultivation. Through the upper districts 

 of the south, however, it climbs wildly about with long stems and produces in 

 a corymb its pale pink, or white flowers. Its large, lanceolate sepals are 



