Rosa canina (Dog rose)

Description : A shrub ; branchlets prickly ; leaves with usually 2 pairs of leaflets and a terminal one, with a large 2-lobed stipule joined to the stalk ; stipule and stalk lined with a few shortly stalked glands ; leaflets narrowly elliptic, doubly and rather sharply toothed (crenate), the teeth tipped with a small gland ; flowers sweet-scented, 1-1-2 in. in diam., usually only one open at a time in each cluster of 3 ; sepals broadly lanceolate, narrowed into a slightly broader top, the outer ones with a variable number of side-lobes margined with stalked glands, the innermost without side-lobes and shortly hairy more or less all over the outside ; petals white or pink ; stamens numerous, the anthers rather deeply lobed at each end ; styles about 25, hairy, with an oblique con¬cave stigma ; fruits red, usually 3 together, the middle one larger and more pear-shaped than the side ones, from all of which the sepals fall off; in vigorous shoots the prickles are larger, as shown in the drawing.

There is no nectar in the flowers of the wild roses, but they produce abundant pollen, which is collected by insects, and either cross- or self-pollination occurs. The fruits of many are rich in vitamin C, and a large quantity have been gathered during the war and made into syrup for the benefit of children as an anti-scorbutic in place of oranges.

As already stated on p. viii, in the year 1943 over five hundred tons of rose-hips were collected from the hedgerows and woods of Britain, and from these no fewer than two and a half million bottles of National Rose Hip Syrup were prepared, equivalent in Vitamin C content to twenty-five million oranges. In general the roses in northern districts were richer than those further south.