Woodside. 4 1 



Rose trees sometimes live to an enormous age. At 

 Hildersheim, in Germany, there is a historical plant which 

 it is calculated, on the very best authorit}*-, must be over 

 one thousand years old, and is still quite vigorous. Rose- 

 blossoms, however, soon come to grief, and last but a very 

 short time. The old couplet 



" The rose has but a summer's reign, 

 The daisy never dies " 



illustrates this well. So also does the poet when he sings 



" Gather ye rosebuds while ye may, 



Old time is still a flying ; 

 And the same flower that smiles to-day, 

 To-morrow will be dying." 



Here are some strange-looking structures on the rose. 

 Bright red, feathery cushions ! What can they be ? 

 " Robins' nests," the boys call them, the " bedeguar," they 

 are called by more scientific persons. They are plant galls, 

 and are formed by a tiny insect. The insect punctures the 

 stem to lay its eggs. Around the puncture thus made the 

 sap collects, and a mass of cells is formed. These cells 

 increase and multiply until at last the bedeguar in its full 

 rich red dress is produced. Oak-apples, the tiny pimples on 

 various leaves, and the marble-like excrescences growing 

 from stems or on roots are also the result of insect action, 

 and, diverse as they are in structure, form, size, and shape, 

 are roughly grouped as Plant-galls. Each particular kind 

 of insect gives rise to its own particular kind of gall, and 

 since the number of insects which thus injure the trees 

 and shrubs is very great, we 'find a very large number of 

 different kinds of plant-galls. 



