STUDIES OF PLANT LIFE 
A popular song in the days of Charles I. was that begin- 
ning with the lines— 
‘¢ Gather your roses while you may, 
For time is still a flying, 
And that same flower that blooms to-day 
To-morrow may be dying.” 
The leaves of Rosa blanda are pale underneath; leaflets 
five to seven; fiowers blush-pink; stem not very prickly; 
fruit red and round; the bush from one to three feet in 
height. 
Dwarr WILD Rose—R. lucida (Ehrh.), 
is widely diffused over Canada; it is found on all open 
plain-lands, but shuns the deep shade of the forest. The 
bark is of a bright red, and the young wood is armed with 
bristly prickles of a grayish color. When growing in shade 
the half-opened flowers and buds are of a deep pink or 
carmine, but where more exposed in sunny spots the petals 
fade to a pale blush-color. This shrub becomes somewhat 
troublesome if encouraged in the garden, owing to the run- 
ning roots sending up many shoots. In its wild state the 
Dwarf Rose seldom exceeds three feet in height; it is the 
second and older wood that bears the flowers; the flower- 
bearing branches become almost smooth or only remotely 
thorny. The leaflets vary in number from five to nine; they 
are sharply serrated at the edges and smooth on the surface; 
the globular scarlet fruit is flattened at the eye and is of a 
pleasant sub-acid taste. 
This beautiful red-barked rose grows in great profusion 
on the plains above Rice Lake, clothing large tracts of hill 
and dale and scenting the evening air at dew-fall with its 
llelicate fragrance. 
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