ROSE FAMILY. _Rosaceae_.
A large and important family, widely distributed and including some
of our loveliest flowers and most delicious fruits; herbs, shrubs,
or trees; generally with stipules and usually with alternate leaves;
the flowers rich in pollen and honey and usually perfect. The calyx
usually five-lobed, often with bracts, with a disk adhering to its
base; the petals of the same number as the calyx-lobes, separate or
none; the stamens usually numerous, separate, with small anthers; the
ovary superior, or partly inferior; the pistils few or many, separate
or adhering to the calyx, sometimes, as in the true Rose, enclosed and
concealed in a hollow receptacle; the fruit of various kinds and shapes.
There are several kinds of Opulaster, branching shrubs, with clusters
of white flowers and grayish or reddish, shreddy bark.
[Sidenote: =Ninebark=
_Opuláster malvàceus_ (_Physocarpus_)
=White
Summer
Northwest, Utah, Ariz.=]
This is a handsome bush, from three to six feet high, with pretty,
almost smooth, bright green leaves, with large stipules. The flowers
are sweet-smelling, about half an inch across, with cream-white petals,
and form very beautiful and conspicuous rounded clusters, about three
inches across, the long stamens giving a very feathery appearance. At
a distance this shrub has the effect of Hawthorn in the landscape. It
grows on mountainsides in rich soil.
[Sidenote: =Apache Plume=
_Fallùgia paradóxa_
=White
Spring
Ariz., New Mex.=]
There are two kinds of Fallugia. This is usually a low undershrub,
but in the Grand Canyon, on the plateau, it is a fine bush, four or
five feet high, with pale woody, branching stems; the small, somewhat
downy, evergreen leaves, resembling those of the Cliff Rose, but the
flowers larger. They are white, two inches across, like a Wild Rose
in shape, with beautiful golden centers, and grow on long, slender,
downy flower-stalks, at the ends of the branches. Individually, they
are handsomer than the flowers of the Cliff Rose, but not nearly so
effective, as the bloom is much more scattered. The calyx-tube is downy
inside and the five sepals alternate with five, small, long, narrow
bractlets. The hairy pistils are on a small conical receptacle,
surrounded by a triple row of very numerous stamens on the margin of
the calyx-tube.
[Illustration: Ninebark--Opulaster malvaceus.]
Wild Roses are widely distributed in the northern hemisphere and are
too familiar to need much description. There are numerous kinds;
some are climbing, all are prickly and thorny, with handsome, often
fragrant, flowers and compound leaves, with toothed edges. The numerous
yellow stamens are on the thick margin of a silky disk, which nearly
closes the mouth of the calyx. The numerous pistils develop into
akenes, or small, dry, one-seeded fruits. These look like seeds and we
find them inside the calyx-tube, which in ripening enlarges and becomes
round or urn-shaped. These swollen calyx-tubes are the "hips," which
turn scarlet and add so much to the beauty of the rose-bush when the
flowers are gone. Rosa is the ancient Latin name.
[Sidenote: =Fendler's Rose=
_Ròsa Féndleri_
=Pink
Spring, summer
Idaho, Utah, Ariz.=]
This is a very handsome thrifty bush, about four feet high, with
smooth, or slightly downy, bright green leaves, and thorny stems, with
slightly curved thorns. The flowers are more or less fragrant and about
two inches across, with bright pink petals, which gradually become
paler as they fade, and pretty crimson-tipped buds. This has smooth
"hips" and is a beautiful and conspicuous kind, growing in valleys and
along streams, up to an altitude of nine thousand feet. It is widely
distributed and variable, probably including several forms.
[Sidenote: =California Wild Rose=
_Ròsa Califórnica_
=Pink
Spring, summer, autumn
Cal., Oreg.=]
A large bush, three to six feet high, with erect, branching stems,
armed with a few, stout thorns, which turn back. The leaves are more
or less downy, especially on the under side, with from three to seven
leaflets, and the flowers usually form a cluster of few or many and are
each from one to nearly two inches across, with pale pink petals. They
are lovely flowers, with a delicious fragrance, and are common at low
and moderate altitudes in California, usually growing near streams.
[Illustration: Rosa Fendleri.