24 A BOOK ABOUT ROSES. 



to various healthy and handsome rose-buds, which, though 

 belonging to junior branches of the family, gave promise of 

 equal beauty. 



How was it done ? Dc V abondance dti c(^iir — from a true 

 love of the Rose. '^ It's more nor a mile from my house to 

 my garden," said one of these enthusiasts to me, *'but I've 

 been here for weeks, in the winter months, every morning 

 before I went to my work, and every evening when I came 

 from it, and not seldom at noon as well, here and back, 

 and my dinner to get, between twelve and one o'clock." 

 "How do you afford," I inquired from another, "to buy 

 these new and expensive varieties .'' " and I would that 

 every employer, that every one who cares for the labouring 

 poor, would remember the answer, reflect, and act on it. 

 "I'll tell you," he said, "how I manage to buy 'em — by 

 keeping away from the beershops ! " 



From a lady who lives near Nottingham, and goes much 

 among the poorer classes, I heard a far more striking in- 

 stance of this floral devotion than from the florists them- 

 selves. While conversing with the wife of a mechanic 

 during the coldest period of a recent winter, she observed 

 that the parental bed appeared to be scantily and insuf- 

 ficiently clothed, and she inquired if there were no more 



