192 THROUGH GLADE AND MEAD. - 
The fruit, consisting of two long and slender follicles, 
filled with seeds tipped with long silky hairs, shows 
their kinship to the milkweeds, which are also well 
represented in the list. 
The sweetbrier is one of the most welcome emi- 
grants from the Old World. There is an odor of very 
pleasant association about it, apart from its own per- 
fume and fleeting beauty. 
The bright petals of the wild rose flash out upon 
us, to our glad surprise, from many a thicket, and lead 
us to utter the prayer, ‘Floreat regina florum.” About 
thirty species of wild roses are now recognized as native 
of the northern hemisphere, reaching from the Arctic 
circle as far south as Mexico, Abyssinia and India, while 
the varieties of cultivated roses are almost countless and 
are yearly increasing. Our wild rose, though a humble 
member of the genus, may well be proud of its family 
connection. For more than two thousand years the 
rose has been celebrated by the poets; it has been sur- 
rounded by the most pleasant legends; it has found a 
place among the traditions as among the customs of 
many peoples. Its family was already an old one when 
Romulus and Remus were drifting down the Tiber to the 
site of Rome; it is older than the pyramids. 
While the genus Xosa fills so large a space that its 
lore is almost a literature, the order Rosacee fills even 
a wider space, embracing about a thousand species, and 
