CHAPTER I 

 THE COMRADESHIP OF THE ROSE 



"We bring roses, beautiful fresh roses. 

 Dewy as the mornijig and colored like the daivnJ* 



— T. Buchanan Read 



ROSES ! The very word is fragrant. It is a caress, a magic 

 incantation. Exquisite memories lie in its gift. This 

 five-petaled word, it is safe to say, enshrines more mental 

 pictures of pure and enduring beauty than any other in the 

 garden of speech. Life admits no word to more tender inti- 

 macies. As children we dance to its nod down sunny aisles of 

 laughter; as young men and maidens we seal with it the be- 

 trothal kiss; and at our journey's end we call upon its hving 

 fragile lovehness to breathe denial of death itself. 



Since history was first written the rose has been associated 

 with the most important and vital, as well as the tenderest, 

 events in the hfe of man. For centuries it has been fully recog- 

 nized as the Queen of Flowers, honored ahke by poet and by 

 king. Yet such varieties as Opheha, Sunburst, and Frau Karl 

 Druschki the ancients never knew. , What w^ould have been 

 their ecstasies if they could have been privileged to enter the 

 gorgeous Roseraie de I'Hay ot M. Jules Gravereaux, near Paris, 

 with little doubt the finest rose-garden in the world I 



This permanent garden includes among its thousands of 

 varieties specimens said to have originated in the sixth century, 

 B.C., thus providing an antiquarian interest which is embel- 

 lished by the addition of hundreds of varieties quite unknown 

 to that epoch of history. Roses from every continent are ar- 

 ranged and trained in all conceivable styles, from borders of 

 Baby Ramblers to giant Tree roses, 15 feet high and 10 feet 

 spread. Tunnels completely covered with climbing roses pierce 

 the garden, with here a bit of statuary, there a fountain flashing 

 in the sunshine. 



And everywhere, roses! From the broad-petaled, deep red 

 Lion climber to the magnificent M. Gravereaux, named for 

 the originator of this "bower of bliss," they smile up at one naively 



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