1869.] CULTIVATION OF HARDY FRUITS. 55 



could favour him with a facer, which he couldn't obtain in France. 

 As for that General Jacqueminot, shouldn't I like to meet him in 

 action," here he pulled his mustache fiercely, "and to roll him over 

 on Rupert 1 " — his charger. I bade him light a weed, and hope, but he 

 didn't seem to relish hoping. Towards the end of the next summer he 

 came to see me again, with the daughter of the gods in his brougham, 

 and on the opposite side, in the lap of its nurse, a new " duck," far 

 dearer to his bride than any Rosebud on earth. 



Although the inner walks should be grass, there must be an outer 

 promenade of gravel, smooth and dry for the thinnest boots, when the 

 turf is damp with rain or dew, and when the queen wears her dia- 

 monds of purest water, as in the days of Mary and Anna. 



I would have the approaches to a Rosary made purposely obscure 

 and narrow, that the visitor may come with a sudden gladness and 

 wonder upon the glowing scene, as the traveller by rail emerges from 

 the dark tunnel into the brightness of day and a fair landscape ; or as 

 some dejected whist-player, at the extremity of wretched cards, finds 

 the ace, king, and queen of trumps ! 



Although water offered itself in a fair running stream for introduc- 

 tion into the Rose-garden, I should hesitate timidly as to its admission. 

 Charming as it would be to see the Roses reflected, like Narcissus, in 

 such a mirror — to muse upon beauty, like Plato beneath the planes, 

 which grew by the waters of Ilissus — we should simultaneously 

 strengthen the cruel power of our fiercest enemy, frost. 



Let us now consider, collectively and individually, the various 

 families of this our royal flower, that we may invite those members 

 whom we may esteem most worthy to be guests at our feast of Roses. 



S. Reynolds Hole. 



THE CULTIVATION- OF HARDY FRUITS. 



THE PEAR. 



( Continued from page 17.) 



We now come to treat of the art of grafting, which in passing we may 

 remind the reader is of very great antiquity. Although we cannot 

 definitely say to whom the honour of first introducing it belongs, yet 

 we nevertheless know that it was practised to some extent by the 

 ancients; but from all we can gather from the writings of these periods, 

 it would appear to have been but very imperfectly understood and 

 acted upon. It is referred to by Aristotle and Pliny, as well as seve- 

 ral of their contemporaries, but must have been practised more from 



