32 A BOOK ABOUT ROSES. 



as a rule, bright gems shine within that case. And ah ! 

 who but he can tell the refreshment, the rest, the peace, 

 which he finds in his little garden, coming home from the 

 sick and the sorrowful, and here reminded that for them 

 and him there is an Eden, more beautiful than the first, a 

 garden where summer shall never cease ! 



And here I would ask permission to digress briefly, that 

 I may confirm a very interesting statement which was 

 made after our florist dinner at Leicester* by the editor of 

 The Gardener, and received with hearty acclamations. He 

 had been told, he said, by a Scotch clergyman, that in his 

 visitations from house to house he had never met with an 

 ungenial reception where he had seen a plant in the win- 

 dow. It was a promise of welcome ; it was a sign that 

 there dwelt within a love and yearning for the beautiful ; 

 it was an invitation for the sower to sow. What tender 

 memories, solaces, and hopes, may be brought into darkened 

 homes by the brightness and the sweetness of flowers ! 



* ' The weary woman stays her task, 

 That perfume to inhale ; 

 The pale-faced children pause to ask 

 What breath is on the eale. 



* During the Provincial Show of the Royal Horticultural Society in 1867. 



