The Palatka daily news. (Palatka, Fla.) 1884-1888, 1888-02-05
Written for the Palotka Nsus. |
FLORIDA PLANTS.
Our vegstabie and Flower Gardens-a Medicinal
Private treasure
BY DIR. A. scHAFFRANEK. PALATEA, FLA.
XVIII.

While IN the North and Northwest
people have to suffer from billiards,
snow storms and frost, and while the cid
ice king rules there, and draws with his
IRON hand flowers and arabesques in fan
tastic forms on all the window panels,
We in the sunny South shall meet nc
such artistic sketching, but may enjoy
the most delightful weather. the re-
fresFing and reviying natural beauty of
Floras most loveiiest children. For
look at our flower gardens and groves
viii contradict at once the false reports
published. in some of the Northern pa
pers, becauses the thermometer never
went down below. but shows so or 20
above zero. Cranks and fools are only
fit for such internal work, and every
visitor from the North has nothing else
to confirm than the truth, namely, that
Florida is and viii be the Land of
Flowers that our climate is unrivaled
in the Union, and that Tampa and its
vicinity is perfectly free from yellow
fever, and that wherever fever should
be in existence, it may be found only in
the head of that man who has forgotten
all. even to blush, at his senseless COM
munication. Let us not dwell any
longer at this sad experience, for we
Floridians are accustomed to such mis-
representations, but let us turn our eyes
to more interesting subject, to the
Rose, the queen of the flowers, to its use
and its meaning in history.
RosA-THE ROSE.
belongs to the natural order of the Ro-
saeee, sub-order III. Rosacea, tribe III.
Rose@. In the flora of the United
States of North America, the following
wild growing species are to be found,
namely: Rosa setigera, Michx-the
climbing or prairie rose; Rosa Carolina,
Lin, the swamp rose; Rosa lucida,
Ehrh-the dwarf wild rose; Rosa blanda,
Ait.-the early white rose; Rosa rubigi-
nosa, Lin.-the true sweet briar or e la
tine; Rosa micrantha. Smith-the small
lowered sweet briar, aad Rosa l8yig-
alta, Michx-the Cherokee rose.
The roses have calyx with five folia-
cious segments, which alternate with
five petals, its perigynous stamens are
numerous and their filaments free, bear
ing anthers with two cells; all these Or
gans are inserted upon the upper edge of
an oval or an oval or spherical recepta-
Gle. AT the bottom large number of
free carpets stand erect, each forms an
unilocular ovary with single anutro-
pal ovule and elongated style, sur
mounted by an obluse stigma. When
ripe these pistils become achenes, which
are enveloped by the now heshy recepta-
Gle, the seeds enclose straight embryo,
destitute of atbumen. Roses are often
supplied with pricl<les and spines, they
have alternate leaves, with stipules adj
nate to the petiole, and beautiful termi-
nal flowers, either solitary or in clusters,
which have sweet ard unequaled odor.
Throughout the north of Europe the
wild roses are single, in warmer chimes
usually double, and it is curious fact
that though SO widely spread, the wild
Australia or South America The spe-
cies and varieties, most of them pro-
duced by hybridation by the horticultu-
rists, amount to over five thousand. and
as ornamental plants they stand unriv-
aled in public favor, and are known and
have been an object of esteem in all
civilized nations, for in Greece the rose
went by the name of ''rhodon;" the Ro-
mans, Italians and Spaniards call it
rosa" the Germans and French ''rose;'
the Portuguese ''roseira;' the Poles and
Seryians ''roza:" the Bohem;ans '.ruze;''
the Tartars '.gul;' the Kirkisians ''tock-
me-" the Tungisians .'movara:" the Kor-
jackens, 'Pitchkutschan, the Kamsha-
dales, ''Kehush' and the japanese ''foo-
soon.
The genus rose is in state of great
confusion, produced especially by a
good many of the gardeners who have
no knowledge of horticulture. Nature APP
pears scarcely to have placed any limit
between the different species of the rose,
and it is already very difficult to define
the wild species, which have not yet been
modified by culture, it is almost impos-
sible to refer to their original type the
numerous varieties which culture has
made in the flowers of species already SO
nearly resembling each other. The rose
has been classified by botanists in diff
ferent tribes:
Feroces-Deciduous low bushes, ma
tives of Caucasus and Kamtschatka.
Acknowledgment or sub-ever-
gr een bushes natives of China.
and Nepal
Cinamomee - Deciduous rambling
| bushes natives of Continental Europe
| and North America.
Pimpinellifola -Formingbushes partly
low and dense and partly large and
rambling, natives of Europe, Asia and
North America.
NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. bushes, gener-
ally erect, natives of Syria, Caucasus and
Middle of Europe.
Villose-Deciduous shrubs, mostly
with. erect branches, natives of Britain
and Middle Europe.
ubiginose-Includes all of the Egg
latino or sweet briar, natives of Europe,
Caucasus and North America.
Canina-Chiefiy bushes, but partly
sarmentose and procumbent, natives of
Europe and Asia.