POSITION. 59 



had a hedge of Rosa villosa these twenty years," writes 

 Mr Robertson, a nurseryman at Kilkenny, in 1834, "about 

 8 or 10 feet high, which is a sheet of bloom every May, and 

 throughout the rest of the season flowers with the Bour- 

 sault. Noisette, Hybrid China, and other Roses which are 

 budded on it." ''At the Isle of Bourbon," writes Mr 

 Rivers, quoting Monsieur Breon, in the Rose Amateurs' 

 Gtnde^ " the inhabitants generally enclose their land with 

 hedges made of two rows of Roses — one row of the com- 

 mon China Rose, the other of the Red Four Seasons." 

 And in the Gardeners Chronicle of June 19, 1869, we have 

 the description of a hedge of Roses, grown at Digswell, 

 Hertfordshire, 280 feet in length. 



Catullus, in one beautiful line, describes the benign and 

 gracious influences which we should seek to obtain for the 

 Rose. He writes of a flower, 



" Quem mulcent aurge, finnat sol, educit imber," 



to which the air nimbly and sweetly recommends itself, 

 bringing the complexion of beauty, but not visiting the 



* Rose Amateurs' Guide. Referring to this excellent manual for the first 

 time, I wish to say, once for all, that it has made more Rose-growers, and 

 done more for the improvement of Rosaries, than any other book or books in 

 existence. 



