XXVI. ROSACEA, 127 
XXVI. ROSACEA. THE ROSE FAMILY. 
Herbs, shrubs, or trees, with alternate leaves, mostly 
toothed or divided, the stipules seldom wanting and often 
leaf-like. Flowers in cymes, or solitary at the ends of the 
year’s shoots, or more rarely in lateral bunches or racemes, 
Sepals 4 or 5, united at the base into a lobed calyx, sometimes 
double and usually enclosing the ovary or adhering to it. 
Petals 4 or 5 or rarely none. Stamens usually indefinite in 
number, inserted with the petals on the calyx below its lobes. 
Ovary of 1, 2, or more carpels, usually distinct at the time of 
flowering, but sometimes combined even then into a single 
5-celled ovary, which is then always inferior or combined with 
the calyx. As the fruit enlarges, the carpels either remain free 
or are variously combined with each other or with the calyx. 
Seeds 1 or 2 (or in Sptrea 3 or 4) in each carpel. Embryo with 
large cotyledons and no albumen. 
A numerous family, widely spread over the globe, but more in the 
temperate and cooler parts of the northern hemisphere than within the 
tropics. The indefinite stamens inserted on the calyx are sufficient to 
distinguish the greater number of the genera from all other British 
plants. In the few cases where the stamens are apparently definite, 
there are no petals, but they then differ widely from all other apetalous 
genera by their stipules and divided leaves, as well as by the structure 
of the ovary. 
Ovary or ovaries superior or free from the calyx, though sometimes enclosed 
init . 
Ovary or ovaries inferior or adhering t to the cally. tube, which is closed over 
them . . : : : : 
= 
He OD bo 
9 { A single ovary . 
q Several ovaries . : : 
! Trees, with a deciduous calyx and succulent fr uit s : si7ike PRUNUS. 
Herbs, with the calyx persisting round the dry seed-vessel 4 
4 € No petals. (Herbs.) : : ‘ 5 
: Four, five, or more petals. (Herbs or shrubs. ) 8 
Leaves palmately lobed or digitate. Flowers in loose ‘Panicles or cymes. 6 
1 Leaves pinnate. Flowers in heads : : 4 7 
6 5 Calyx single, 4-lobed ; i é bar ALCHEMILLA. 
at Calyx double, 5 large and 5 small lobes : ; POTENTILLA SIBBALDI. 
Heads purplish. Flowers hermaphrodite, with 4 stamens . 9. SANGUISORBA. 
"| Heads green. Flowers dicecious, the males with numerous stamens. 
10. POTERIUM. 
8 { Calyx-tube short and nearly flat, not enclosing the ue : ‘ Saige 
Calyx-tube closing over the carpels or seeds E : : é : tee | | 
{ Calyx single. 10 
94 Calyx double, having as many external bracts as divisions, and altemating 
with them. : : : : : : ; : : é : yas 
10 Ohin. -segments5 . : : : Ades 3: 
Calyx-segments about 8. " Carpels dry and distinct when ripe ‘ Ji 63. DRYAS 
W Carpels dry, opening when ripe . : . 2. SPIRAMA. 
Carpels succulent, forming a kind of granulated berry : f » 5. RUBUS. 
12 ! Carpels dry, ending i in along jointed awn . ; : : : 4. GEUM. 
Carpels without awns, small and seed-like . : : : . 13 
