38 Woodside. 



which, in the case of the eglantine (or, as it is more generally 

 called, the sweet-brier), give out a delicious odour. In 

 another group the prickles are thickened at the base and 

 hooked at the tip, and to this group the common dog-rose 

 (Rosa canina) of our hedges belongs. Its lovely, delicately 

 scented clusters of flowers have charmed us during our 

 morning's walk, and its bright red " hips " give colour to 

 the hedges during the dull winter months. 



The red hips are the fruit of the rose, and are very in- 

 teresting botanically. A true fruit is really a ripened ovary ~ 

 but in some plants, more particularly those belonging to the 

 same natural order as the rose, and which has been well- 

 named Rosacece, other parts of the flower help to form the 

 fruit. In the wild-rose flower, the calyx remains adherent 

 to the pistil after the stamens and petals have died off. This 

 calyx continues to grow, and encloses the ovary in its rapidly 

 increasing cells. When at last the fruit is perfected, it is 

 composed essentially of this enlarged calyx, the true fruits 

 being the pips inside the " hip." 



The hip of the rose is, however, not the only fruit thus 

 formed. The fleshy parts of the apple and pear have been 

 similarly developed, and are simply swollen calyces, the 

 pips being the true fruit ; whilst the edible part of a straw- 

 berry is, in fact, only the enlarged receptacle or base on 

 which the flower is placed, the true fruits being the minute,, 

 hard, cell-like achenes scattered over its surface (Fig. 12). 



Nowhere are roses so abundant as in our country 



" Where the rose in all its pride 

 Decks the hollow dingle side," 



and it is no surprise that poets innumerable have sung their 

 praises. Burns writes 



