HARD WICKE' S SCIENCE- G OS SIP. 



157 



It is an erect prickly shrub ; its leaves are com- 

 posed of several distinct leaflets, which are placed 

 laterally in pairs along the stalk, finishing at the top 

 in a single leaflet ; each leaflet is toothed round the 

 edge, like the teeth of a saw. At the base of the stalk 

 of the leaf itself are what are termed in botanical 

 language two "stipules;" they are really modified 

 leaves. They are much smaller than the leaflets ; 

 they grow one on each side of the stalk, and instead 

 of growing out from it, as the leaflets do, they are 

 attached to it, and therefore almost to one another, 

 for all their length ; the flowers are "terminal," i.e. 

 they spring from the apex of the stem, and when the 

 stem has produced its bud it grows no more in length. 

 Sometimes the stem may branch, perhaps it may send 

 off a side-shoot from near its base, and when that 

 shoot grows to be about the same length as the 

 primary one, it buds at its end, sends forth a flower, 

 -and grows no more ; so that all the flowering stems, 

 no matter where they start from, are pretty well of the 

 same height. The flowers are white, yellow or red ; 

 they are not honeyed ; the calyx consists of a tube, with 

 the upper part considerably spread out into five 

 divisions ; the tube is closely attached to the seed- 

 vessel ; it is generally globose in form, or else has the 

 shape ol an egg ; the mouth, i.e. the part just before it 

 begins to spread out, is much contracted ; the five 

 divisions into which it spreads when in bud are folded 

 over one another like the tiles of a roof ; the petals are 

 five in number, circular in shape, and concave ; they 

 soon fall after the flower is fully blown. The stamens 

 are very numerous, and are situated on the disc> 

 which in this case is a sort of thickened ridge round 

 the inside of the calyx-tube, and almost closing the 

 mouth of it ; the seed-vessel has many divisions in it, 

 and there are as many styles growing out of the top of 

 it as there are divisions ; the styles are short and 

 thickened at the end, which thickening forms the 

 stigmas ; when the seed-vessel has ripened into the 

 fruit, the five spreading divisions of the calyx still 

 remain adherent to it, either spread out or reflexed. 



It is a plant widely distributed ; it is to be found 

 almost all over the world, and there are about a 

 thousand species of it. 



Herbalists seem to have made but little use of the 

 flowers for medicinal purposes, but they used the roo^ 

 of the wild briar for making decoctions and infusions, 

 and a conserve made of the pulp of the ripe haws 

 was supposed to be a great aid to digestion, and to be 

 very effectual in checking a hemorrhage. Pliny, in his 

 " Historia Naturalis," says that the bark of the root 

 very finely scraped while fresh and green, and infused 

 or decocted in wine, three or four ounces to a quart 

 of wine, makes a very good cure for the bite of a mad 

 dog, whether for outward application or to be taken 

 inwardly is not specified, perhaps both were intended. 



Roses seem from very earliest times to have been 

 much associated with the dead. Anacreon, a Greek 

 lyric poet who lived about B.C. 544, mentions them 



in one of his lyrics, making the comfort of the dead to 

 depend on their presence ; thus we read — 



" When age and vigour do decay, 

 The rose their strength repairs ; 

 It drives all maladies away, 

 And can prolong our years. 



The dead, too, in their graves do lie, 



With peaceful slumbers blest ; 

 This is the amulet whereby 



No ills their tombs molest." 



It was a custom also amongst the Romans to strew 

 the bodies of the dead with flowers, and it was a 

 regular practice to strew the graves with roses every 

 year. I have no doubt our association of flowers 

 with the dead is a remain of old Roman manners ; 

 even now at the present day the custom still prevails 

 in many of the villages round Derby, of hanging 

 wreaths of white roses over the pews of unmarried 

 villagers who have died in their youth ; and at 

 Oakley, a small village in Surrey, they are in the 

 habit of planting rose-trees on the graves of lovers, 

 which two instances would lead us to suppose that 

 roses are not only connected with the dead, but with 

 youth and with love. 



There are many omens and superstitions in con- 

 nection with the rose : the blooming of all roses in 

 autumn was looked on as a sign of a plague in the 

 ensuing year ; and in Germany it was held to be a 

 certain sign of death in the nearest house when a 

 white rose bloomed forth unexpectedly. The super- 

 stitions peculiar to the red rose are mostly connected 

 with blood. The Turks believe it owes its red colour 

 to the blood of Mohammed ; and there is a super- 

 stition held in France, Germany, and Italy, that 

 a drop of one's blood buried under a rose-bush pro- 

 duces ruddy cheeks. There is also an old charm 

 common to all Germany, and now found in Suabia 

 and Westphalia, against nose-bleeding and all 

 hemorrhages. There is a variation of the words of the 

 charm in each country ; in Westphalia they run 

 thus : " Abek, Wabek, Fabek ; in Christ's garden 

 stand three red roses, one for the good God, the 

 other for God's blood, the third for the angel Gabriel : 

 blood, I pray you, cease to flow ! " In Suabia the 

 words are : " On our Lord's grave spring three red 

 roses — the first ^Hope, the second Patience, the third 

 God's will : blood, I pray you, be still ! " Then 

 there is a third variation : "In God's garden bloom 

 three roses — -Blood-drop, Blood-stop, Blood-still : 

 blood, I pray you, cease to flow ! " 



In old heathen times the rose held a high place as 

 a mystic flower, and the dwarfs and elves had it 

 under their special protection, Laurin, the king of 

 the dwarfs, forbidding anyone to touch it without his 

 permission. As regards its sacred connections, the 

 rose was one of the flowers sacred to the Virgin Mary. 

 According to the old legend, on the third day after 

 the interment of the Virgin, the Apostles visited her 

 grave and found it open and filled with roses and 

 lilies. Like many other flowers, the rose is a weather 



