CHAPTER XI. 



GARDEN ROSE ^—{coii timied) 



I COMMENCED my selection of garden Roses — that Is, of 

 Roses which are beautiful upon the tree, but not the most 

 suitable for exhibition— with the Provence and the Moss, 

 because these were the Roses which I loved the first. They 

 had but few contemporaries alike precious to our eyes and 

 noses in the garden of my childhood ; — the York and 

 Lancaster, the Alba, the Damask, the Sweet Brier, the old 

 Monthly ; and these also shall suggest, if you please, our 

 route through the land of Roses. 



First, then, with reference to the York and Lancaster — 

 thus called because it bears in impartial stripes the colours, 

 red and white, of those royal rivals who fought the Wars of 

 the Roses — although I cannot commend its flimsy flowers, 

 as gaudily and as scantily draped as the queen of a ballet 

 or burlesque, I must claim a place in the Rosary for a few 



