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In literature, ancient and modern, sacred and profane, no flower
figures so conspicuously as the rose. To the Romans it was most
significant when placed over the door of a public or private
banquet hall. Each who passed beneath it bound himself thereby
not to disclose anything said or done within; hence the
expression sub rosa, common to this day.
The PRAIRIE, CLIMBING, or MICHIGAN ROSE (R. setigera) lifts
clusters of deep, bright pink flowers, that after a while fade
almost white, above the thickets and rich prairie soil, from
southern Ontario and Wisconsin to the Gulf, as far eastward as
Florida. Its distinguishing characteristics are: Stout, widely
separated prickles along the stem, that grows several feet long;
leaves compounded of three, rarely five, oval leaflets, acute or
obtuse at the apex; stalks and calyx often glandular; odorless
flowers that, opening in June and July, measure about two and a
half inches across, their styles cohering in a smooth column on
which bees are tempted to alight; and a round hip, or seed
vessel, formed by the fruiting calyx, which is more or less
glandular.
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