HORTICULTURAL.

THE ROSE FAMILY (Rosaceae.)

The best authorities divide the family into
sub-families, or tribes, varying in number from
three to ten.
One of these-the Almond or Plum family-is
easily recognized by its simple drupe, or stone
fruit. Here belongs the almond, much like its
neighbor, the peach. In the former, the edible
part is the seed in the center; in the latter, it is
the fleshy part outside. With these are associated the nectarine, apricot, plum or prune, and cherry. The sap of all becomes a gum quite like
gum Arabic. The leaves and kernel yield a
deadly poison called prussic acid, the quantity of
which, in some of them, has been very much
diminished by cultivation. The timber of black
cherry is valuable for furniture.

The Rose family proper, consisting of herbs
or shrubs, is not so easily defined, as it contains
a much greater number and variety of plants
than either of the others. It includes the type
of the whole family-the rose already referred
to, the meadow sweet (Spiræa) and others of less
value for ornaments. In India and Persia, a delightful but costly perfume-an essential oil
called the attar of roses, is extensively distilled
from the leaves and flowers of several species of
rose. It is said to require 10,000 rose bushes to
yield three drachms of pure attar. Delicious
fruits which we should miss, if now deprived of
them in their season, are produced by this family-strawberry (Fragaria), blackberry and raspberry (Bubus). An astringent principle pervades
the leaves, and roots, and fruit of the family.
I venture to briefly mention a subject which is
of much interest to the philosophical botanist of
the present day. I refer to the morphology or
form of the fruit, or other parts. The edible part
of the strawberry is a fleshy receptacle (upper
end of flower stalk) much enlarged. The true
fruit is the part often called seeds. Dr. Asa Gray
would take a boy's cap to illustrate this. Imagine
the outside of the cap covered with the seed like
fruits, and made fleshy, and we have the strawberry. Push it down wrong side out, and we get
the rose-hip or fruit. The edible part of the raspberry differs from the blackberry, in coming off the end of the stem; so we eat the thimble-shaped mass of little peaches. To the botanist
this is an exceedingly entertaining and profitable study, however fanciful it may seem to those not familiar with the subject.

We pass to the Apple Family (Pomacea). They
are trees or shrubs. None of them are natives
of the Southern Hemisphere, nor of Africa, except the northern part. The most valuable are
the apple, pear, quince, medlar and service-berry. All things considered, the apple is the most
important fruit in the Temperate Zone. Collections have already been made of more than fifteen hundred kinds of apples, and they are still
rapidly increasing. The timber of the apple
tree is hard and fine grained and almost equal
to boxwood in value. Hawthorn is sometimes
used for hedges.

We have seen that the grasses are chiefly valuable for their farinaceous grain and nutritious
pasture and fodder. The roses are foremost as a
fruit family. They are celebrated also for their
ornamental flowers, and to a more limited extent
for medicinal properties. "Throughout the civilized world undisputed precedence among flowers has been conceded to the rose in all ages and
by universal consent. In the sacred writings,
by classical authors, by the poets of all countries,
including our own, from Chaucer downwards,
this queen of flowers is the epitome of beauty
and fragrance, the emblem of refined sensual
enjoyment."*

This royal flower gives the name to the large
family to which it belongs. They are mostly
confined to the North Temperate Zone-the region which contains nearly all civilized and enlightened nations upon the globe. The whole
family includes about twelve hundred species.
Roses and grasses do not appear to reach far
back in the geological ages. There is good negative evidence that they were created only a
short time before the appearance of the beasts of
the field which are so useful to mankind. They
are peculiar plants of the later period. The
great Designer never makes an error. Sheep,
horses, and cattle were not introduced until the
earth afforded good pasture, and man not before
a good supply of fruit, grain, beautiful flowers,
and animals valuable for domestication.
W. J. B.
*Rev. C. A. Jones, in Treasury of Botany.