4 FAMILIAR WILD FLOWEUS. 



briar appears to delight in open copses, though at times 

 we find it amongst the mass of plants that crowd on each 

 other in some old hedgerow. It seems to be more especially 

 partial to chalk, and its delicate blossoms are displayed 

 during the months of June and July. 



Like almost everything else, the sweet-briar was, in the 

 "good old times," accredited with remedial virtues. Many 

 of these remedies date as far back as Pliny, and subsequent 

 writers adopt them without question, contenting them- 

 selves with adding, "as Plinie sayth." The briar- wood 

 pipes so largely used by smokers are made, not from the 

 wood of the present plant, but from that of the tree 

 heath (Erica arborea). The wood comes from the south of 

 France, and our English name is a corruption from the 

 French word for heath, bruyere. 



The sweet-briar is the Rosa ruliginosa of the botanist. 

 Its generic name has already received full explanation in 

 our comments on a preceding species of wild rose. The 

 specific name is the feminine form of the Latin word for 

 rusty, a good deal of a brownish-red tint being often found 

 on both stems and foliage, which are, in botanical par- 

 lance, rubiginous. 



