EARLY WILD ROSE.
_Rosa Blanda._
“Nor did I wonder at the lilies white,
Nor praise the deep vermillion of the rose.”
SHAKESPEARE.
“The rose looks fair, but fairer we it deem,
For that sweet odour which in it doth live.”
SHAKESPEARE.
OUR Artist has given us in the present plate a charming specimen of one
of our native roses. The early flowering Rose (_Rosa blanda_) is hardly
so deeply tinted as our dwarf wild rose, _rosa lucida_, but both possess
attractions of colour and fragrance; qualities that have made the rose
to be the theme, of many a poet’s song. In the flowery language of the
East, beauty and the rose seem almost to be synonymous. The Italian
poets are full of allusions to the rose, especially to the red damask
rose, which they call “purpurea rosa.”
A popular song in the days of Charles the 1st was that beginning with
the lines—
“Gather your roses while you may,
For time is still a flying,
And that same flower that blooms to-day,
To-morrow may be dying.”
The leaves of _rosa blanda_ are pale underneath; leaflets five to seven;
flowers blush-pink; stem not very prickly; fruit red and round; the bush
from one to three feet in height.
Another of our dwarf wild roses, _R. lucida_, is widely diffused over
Canada; it is found on all open plain-lands, but shuns the deep shade of
the forest.
The bark of this wild rose is of a bright red, and the young wood is
armed with bristly prickles of a greyish colour. When growing in shade,
the half opened flowers and buds are of a deep pink or carmine, but
where more exposed in sunny spots, the petals fade to a pale
blush-colour. This shrub becomes somewhat troublesome if encouraged in
the garden, from the running roots which send up many shoots. In its
wild state the dwarf rose seldom exceeds three feet in height; it is the
second and older wood that bears the flowers: the flower bearing
branches become almost smooth or only remotely thorny. The leaflets vary
in number from five to nine; they are sharply serrated at the edges, and
smooth on the surface; the globular scarlet fruit is flattened at the
eye; of a pleasant sub-acid taste.
This beautiful red-barked rose grows in great profusion on the
huckleberry plains above Rice Lake, clothing large tracts of hill and
dale, and scenting the evening air at dew-fall with its delicate
fragrance.
There is, or used to be, a delicate pale flowered briar rose, having
small foliage and numerous blossoms of a low branching habit growing in
the high oak-hills in the township of Rawdon. I have never seen the
flowers myself, but have heard the plant described as a rare species.
The SWAMP ROSE, _Rosa Carolina_, is not uncommon; it is often seen
growing at the margin of lakes and rivers, and at the edges of stony
islands; it will climb, by aid of supporting trees, to the height of
eight and ten feet. The flowers are of a somewhat purplish tinge of
pink. The leaves are whitish underneath; this rose is armed with rather
stout prickles below on the old woody stem but smoother above; the
flowers are more clustered than in either of the other species.
The sweet briar is often found growing in waste places, and in thickets
near clearings—no doubt the seed has been carried thither by birds.
It is very possible that other varieties of the rose tribe may yet be
found native to Canadian soil, but the above named are our only known
species at present.
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