AUGUST. 193 



or open their hearts to admire it, unless it is incessantly talked 

 about. 



We have always observed, however, that the great difficulty with 

 those who like to talk about fruits and flowers is, when once talking, 

 to stop. There is no doubt whatever that we might go on, therefore, 

 and fill this whole number with roses, rosariums, rosaries, and rose- 

 water, but that some of our western readers, who are looking for us 

 to give them a cure for the pear-blight, might cry out, " A blight on 

 your Roses!" We must therefore grow more systematic and con- 

 siderate in our remarks. 



We thought some years ago that we had seen that ultima Thule, 

 " a perfect Rose." But we were mistaken. Old associates, fami- 

 liar names, and long- cherished sorts, have their proper hold on our 

 affections; but — we are bound to confess it — modern Florists have 

 coaxed and teased Nature till she has given them Roses more per- 

 fect in form, more airy, rich and brilliant in colour, and more delicate 

 and exquisite in perfume, than any that our grandfathers knew or 

 dreamed of. And more than all, they have produced Roses — in 

 abundance, as large and fragrant as June Roses — that blossom all 

 the year round. If this unceasingly renewed perpetuity of charms 

 does not complete the claims of the Rose to infinity, as far as any 

 plant can express that quality, then are we no metaphysician. 



There is certainly something instinctive and true in that favourite 

 fancy of the poets, that Roses are the type or symbol of female love- 

 liness : 



" Know you not our only 



Rival flower — the human ? 



Loveliest weight, on lightest foot — 



Joy-abundant woman," 



sings Leigh Hunt for the Roses. And, w^e will add, it is striking and 

 curious that refined and careful culture has the same effect on the 

 outward conformation of the Rose that it has on feminine beauty. 

 The Tea and the Bourbon Roses may be taken as an illustration of 

 this. They are the last and finest product of the most perfect cul- 

 ture of the garden ; and do they not, in their graceful and airy forms, 

 their subdued and bewitching odours, and their refined and delicate 

 colours, body forth the most perfect symbol of the most refined and 

 cultivated Imogen or Ophelia that it is possible to conceive } We 

 claim the entire merit of pointing this out, and leave it for some poet 

 to make himself immortal by ! 



There are odd crotchety persons among horticulturists, who cor- 

 respond to old bachelors in society, that are never satisfied to love 

 any thing in particular, because they have really no affections of their 

 own to fix upon any object, and who are always, for instance, ex- 

 cusing their want of devotion to the Rose, under the pretence that 

 among so many beautiful varieties it is impossible to choose. 



Undoubtedly there is an emharrus de richesses in the multitude 

 of beautiful varieties that compose the groups and subdivisions of the 

 Rose family. So many lovely forms and colours are there, dazzling 

 the eye and attracting the senses, that it requires a man or woman 



