ROSE FAMILY 



Flowers. May, June. Solitary or in twos, an inch and a 

 quarter to an inch and a half across, pink varying to white. 

 Pedicels and calyx glandular-hispid. Calyx-lobes lanceolate, 

 usually much-lobed, spreading, deciduous ; petals obcordate or 

 obovate ; styles distinct. 



Fruit. Hip, scarlet, oval or pyriform, one-half to one inch 

 long, glandular, without the calyx-lobes. 



I know a bank whereon the wild thyme blows, 

 Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows ; 

 Quite over-canopied with lush woodbine, 

 With sweet musk roses and with eglantine. 



"Midsummer Night's Dream." SHAKESPEARE. 



With fairest flowers 



I'll sweeten thy sad grave ; thou shalt not lack 

 The flower that's like thy face, pale primrose ; nor 

 The azure harebell, like thy veins ; no, nor 

 The leaf of eglantine, who not to slander 

 Out-sweetened not thy breath. 



"Cymbeline." SHAKESPEARE. 



If the Sweetbrier did not come over in the May- 

 flower it certainly followed hard upon; for we know 

 that it bloomed in Pilgrim gardens long before the 

 close of the seventeenth century. We can well under- 

 stand that it was dear to the homesick wanderers, for 

 this is the Eglantine of Chaucer, of Spenser, and of 

 Shakespeare; the rose that is embedded in the very 

 warp and woof of English life and so of English litera- 

 ture. 



In spite of its fierce armament there is a certain del- 

 icacy about the Sweetbrier which gives it a charm 

 peculiarly its own. The blossom is small and pale and 

 in itself not fragrant ; the delightful fragrance of the 

 plant resides in the pale, amber, resinous glands which 

 so thickly cover the under surface of the leaves as 

 well as pedicel and calyx. 



180 



