THE ROSE FAMILY

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1748, 6 September 1905, Page 62

THE ROSE FAMILY

The popular idea of the rose family is a very limited one, as compared with its real importance, since it only embraces the marvellously beautiful range of flowers which figure under an infinity of names as Roses proper, and the best of which fully entitle the Rose to he termed the Queen of Flowers, both by virtue of its peculiar charm and its delicate odour. This class of roses, however, constitutes but a very small proportion of the rose family, of which, roughly speaking, nc less than 100 general and 1000 species are known, while many species boast of practically innumerable varieties. Furthermore, we owe to the family not merely the choicest flowers in existence, but many of the most delicious fruits, as, for instance, all our apples, pears, quinces, cherries, plums, peaches, almonds, apricots, strawberries, raspberries, and blackberries, which it will be recognised form. a pretty fair list of delicacies to he credited to the rose account, in addition to the flowering roses pure and simple; while, if we study any up to date list of the varieties of each. of these fruits, our remark that they are practically innumerable is seen to be fully justified.

Despite, however, this great diversity in the fruits, and even in the different descriptions of fruits, such as between the apple, with its hard flesh and central pips, and the strawberry, with its soft flesh and scattered external seeds, we have but to examine the flowers, and in every case the relationship with the Queen of Flowers is clearly seen. The same remark applies to the hawthorn, the haws of which are also seen to be akin in nature to tough little apples or pears, while the seed vessels of the florists’ roses are still more alike, and in the Japanese Rose actually assume an edible apple form.

The difference in the form and arrangement of the seeds in the rose family is very remarkable. "We have already alluded to the pips of the apple and the tiny seeds dotted over the surface of the strawberry or embeddied in the flesh of the raspberry; but in the plums, peaches, and cherries we find larger seeds encased in hard shells, and in the almonds we find these seeds so large aa to constitute a dessert fruit in themselves, while the luscious pulp of its cultivated form, the peach and nectarine is reduced co a tough, leathery, inedible coating. The subtle chemistry of plant life has also a wonderfully wide range in this same family, embracing, as it does, the creation of essential oils of varied rose scents, the delicious acids and saccharines of the apples, pears, peaches, etc.; and in another direction the production of one of the deadliest poisons known, viz., prussic acid, which gives the well-known flavour of peach kernel, pervades the bay laurel lends its odour to the hawthorn, and is present in many other members of the order. We thus see that in the rose tribe (the Rosaceae) we have one of the most valuable plant orders in existence, both to the florist and the fruit consumer. In the one direction some of its members appeal to the eye and the sense of beauty with an eloquence given to no other flowers in the world, for nothing equals a first-class rose in its perfection ; while in another it appeals to our palates in the shape of delicious fruits, which are also unsurpassed or even unequalled. The rose and the lily are usually bracketed together as rival l floral sovereigns, but, taking the facts we have adduced into consideration, and remembering the restricted nature of the lily family, we clearly see that the rose stands far and away above it in widespread utility as well as intrinsic diversity of charm and colour. It v<;uld, indeed, form a great additional attraction to rose allows if the merely floral

exhibits could now and again be supplemented by a general exhibit of the rose family in as many of its branches as were available. Nothing approaching a complete representation would be practicable, since there are many tropical forms bearing edible fruits which are here unknown, while only room could be found for the very elite of our home fruits, flowering trees, and herbaceous plants, of the great rose persuasion.— Ghas. T. Druery, in the “Journal of Horticulture.”