51 FAMILIAR WILD FLOWERS. 



" The flower, enamoured of the sun, 



At his departure hangs her head and weeps, 

 And shrouds her sweetness up, and keeps 

 Sad vigils, like a cloistered nun, 

 Till his reviving ray appears, 

 Waking her beauty as he dries her tears." 



The rock rose may very frequently be met with, if 

 only its natural habitat be sought out. It delights in 

 high and dry pastures, and especially when the subsoil 

 is chalky or gravelly, and may be seen in perfection 

 en the great breezy chalk-downs of Southern and Western 

 England, dotting the short elastic turf over with its 

 fragile-looking blossoms. It will be found in flower during 

 the summer and early autumn. So promptly does it 

 close after being gathered, that though we brought it 

 home time after time with other flowers, some of which 

 lasted for days before we had leisure to sketch them, we 

 were always foiled in our hopes, and it was only by keeping 

 it in strong light that we at last managed to get a flower 

 sketched in. The flowers in our illustration were begun 

 and finished at once, before we ventured to even draw a 

 stem, a bud, or a leaf. These last are more amenable 

 to artistic requirements, and behave as one expects buds 

 and leaves to do if fairly treated by being put into water 

 as promptly as may reasonably be managed. 



The root of the rock rose is perennial, branching freely, 

 and of a somewhat woody nature. From this spring 

 numerous flowering stalks, that almost or quite touch the 

 ground for some little distance before they ascend. They 

 are, in botanical language, procumbent. The lower part 

 of these stems is smooth, the upper part being frequently 

 hairy, and the colour is often more or less reddish : these 

 points may all be very clearly seen in our figure. The 



