Wild Ftowers as They Grow 



The upper surface of the stems is often warmed by 

 the sun into hues of dull purple. 



The leaves are rather few and scattered upon 

 the stems. They are each cut into five leaflets of 

 a pretty green above but a paler, deader hue below, 

 and the stem carrying the leaflets, really the equiva- 

 lent of the midrib in, say, an oak or an apple leaf, 

 is purplish, and fenced below by a pair of httle 

 wings. The edges of the leaves are daintily cut 

 into a simple saw-like pattern. 



The flowers are grouped together in twos and 



threes, and when we come to look closely into these 



lovely white blossoms — more cup-Uke than those 



of the dog rose — we are at once united in fellowship 



with certain rose-lovers of centuries past who studied 



the wild roses from behind convent walls, and who 



sometimes embodied their discoveries in quaint 



Latin verse, one couplet of which, referring to the 



sepals, has been handed down to us to-day : 



Quinque sumus /rates, unus barbatus et alter 

 Imberbesque duo, sum semiberbis ego, 



78 



