DOG ROSE 



The long, thorny branches sprawl and scratch and 

 seize and hold ; and because of this the bush has very 

 generally been banished from lawn and garden. It 

 has fled to the roadside and there when June is young 

 it unfolds its delicate blossoms and yields its delicious 

 fragrance for the pleasure of any who pass by. 



Of late years the gardeners have been at work upon 

 the plant and they say they have hybrids much finer 

 than the type. It may be so ; but my allegiance holds 

 fast to the wild creature of Chaucer and of Shake- 

 speare, to " the jaws that bite" and "the claws that 

 catch " of the old English gardens. 



DOG ROSE. CANKER ROSE. WILD BRIER 



Rosa canina. 



Erect or straggling, four to six feet high, wands sometimes 

 ten feet long, usually armed with stout, short, hooked spines, not 

 bristly but sometimes glandular. Native in northern Asia; nat- 

 uralized from Europe. Escaped to roadsides and waste places 

 from Nova Scotia to Virginia ; abundant in the valley of the 

 Delaware. Called Cat-whin and Canker-bloom. 



Leaves. Leaflets five to seven, an inch to an inch and a half 

 long, oval or ovate, obtuse or rounded at base, serrate, obtuse at 

 apex ; smooth, rather thick, sometimes downy beneath. Stip- 

 ules broad, glandular. 



Flowers. June, July. Solitary, or two to four in a cluster, 

 pink, varying to white. Calyx-lobes lanceolate, much-cut, re- 

 flexed, deciduous ; petals obovate or obcordate ; styles distinct. 



Fruit. Hip, scarlet, long- ovoid, half to three-fourths of an 

 inch long, usually glabrous, without the calyx-lobes. 



The Dog Rose, naturalized from Europe, is common 

 throughout New England and greatly resembles the 

 Sweetbrier except that it lacks fragrance. 



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