the double moss brier. It is hardly possible to scatter this shrub too thickly in the plantation, and when we pass hedges of this odorous thorny plant, after a spring shower, we feel not only delighted but refreshed by the fragrance.

The name of Eglantine, by which the sweetleaved brier is known, is taken from the French eglantier. That we so often find French names given to our native plants is not singular, as after the Conquest, French became the written language of this country for many centuries. The Greeks called all the wild roses or briers Kuvópodov, because the root was thought to cure the bite of a mad dog; and the Latins, for the same reason, named them Canina, and from them we call one of our hedge briers the Dog-rose.

It is the dog-rose, rosa canina, that decorates our hedgerows with its tall arching branches and lively odorous flowers in the months of June and July. From the petals of this blushcoloured wild rose, a perfumed water may be distilled, which is thought to be more fragrant than that from garden roses. The leaves of this brier, when dried and infused in boiling water, are often used as a substitute for tea, and have a grateful smell and sub-astringent taste. The fruit of this brier also forms one of the

greatest beauties amongst the autumnal tints, being of a bright scarlet, perfectly smooth and glossy, and of an elegant oblong shape. This brier is often called the Hip-tree, from the name of the fruit.

"Still hungering, pennyless, and far from home, I fed on scarlet hips and stony haws.

*

Hard fare! but such as boyish appetite
Disdains not."

COWPER.

Many persons eat this fruit with pleasure when mellowed by the frost. It was formerly much used as a conserve, the seeds being taken out, and the pulp beaten up with sugar. Gerard says, "The fruit, when it is ripe, maketh most pleasant meates and banketting dishes, as tartes, and such like." The fruit of the rose is nothing more than a fleshy urceolate calyx, from whence the stigma springs, and it afterwards becomes the repository of the true fruit or seed, after the manner of the fig, excepting that the seeds of the hip are divided by silky bristles, or prickly fibres, which cause great irritation on the primæ viæ, if

eaten.

It is the strong shoots of this species of rose-tree that the largest kinds of garden roses are now grafted on; and by this means we see, instead of bushes, tall stems throwing out a

head in imitation of the forest trees.

Where it is desirable to raise them to a height above dwarf bushes, it has a good effect; as also when planted in flower gardens, as pinks and other flowers, may cover the ground with blossoms, whilst the rose forms a kind of parasol over them; but in general we prefer a rosebush to a tree of roses, and are better pleased to look into a rose than up to it. Delille notices this modern practice with that of keeping apple-trees in a dwarf state.

"Of old, the rose on lowly bramble sprung,
While high in air the ruddy apple hung!

Now, strange reverse! the rose-tree climbs the skies,
While scarce from earth our apple-trees arise.”

The white field rose, rosa arvensis, is commonly called the White Dog-rose. This is much less fragrant than the last-mentioned. As the fruit of this kind ripens, it changes from an oblong into a globose shape. The styles of the flower, as soon as they have passed through the neck of the calyx, are compacted into a cylinder, resembling a single style, terminated by a knob composed of the stigmas, which distinguish it from the other species. It is said to be the most common rose in the west of Yorkshire, and it is generally mentioned as the rebel rose.

A young English lady appearing in com

pany at Paris with a sprig of orange flowers in her bosom, was thus complimented by a Frenchman for the clearness of her complexion, at the same time that he gave her a delicate hint that her bosom was more exposed than modesty allowed.

"Lovely Tory, why the jest,

Of wearing orange in thy breast?
Since this breast so clearly shows
The whiteness of the rebel rose."

That both the white and the red rose were formerly considered rebellious emblems, the blood of our ancestors has fully proved.

"And here I prophesy. This brawl to-day

Grown to this faction, in the Temple Garden,
Shall send, between the red rose and the white,
A thousand souls to death and deadly night.” ·
SHAKSPEARE.

The idea of taking a red or a white rose, as an ensign for the parties who caused such dreadful devastation in this country for many ages, seems to have originated in the Temple Gardens of London, if we may trust to poetical history, that says in King Henry the Sixth,

"Within the Temple Hall we were too loud;
The garden here is more convenient.”

In this scene Richard Plantagenet, Duke of York, is made to say,

"Since you are tongue-ty'd, and so loath to speak,
In dumb significants proclaim your thoughts;
Let him, that is a true born gentleman,
And stands upon the honour of his birth,
If he supposes that I have pleaded truth,

From off this briar, pluck a white rose with me.”

To which Somerset answers,

"Let him that is no coward, nor no flatterer, But dare maintain the party of the truth,

Pluck a red rose from off this thorn with me. Warwick. I love no colours, and, without all colour Of base insinuating flattery,

I pluck this white rose, with Plantagenet.

Suffolk. I pluck this red rose with young Somerset,
And say withal, I think he held the right.

Vernon. Stay, lords, and gentlemen; and pluck no more,
Till you conclude that he, upon whose side

The fewest roses are cropp'd from the tree,
Shall yield the other in the right opinion.”

This being settled, Vernon says,

"Then, for the truth and plainness of the case,
I pluck this pale and maiden blossom here,
Giving my verdict on the white rose side.
Som. Prick not your fingers as you pluck it off;
Lest, bleeding, you do paint the white rose red,
And fall on my side so against your will.
Plan. Now, Somerset, where is your argument?
Som. Here, in my scabbard; meditating that,
Shall die your white rose in a bloody red..
Plan. Now, by this maiden blossom in my hand,
I scorn thee and thy fashion, peevish boy."

From that time 1454, until the families were united in 1485, civil war laid waste the fairest portions of our country, and the sons