16 ON THE ROSES. 



each. It was soon found to thrive in a common greenhouse, 

 where it was found to blossom the whole winter, to the great ad- 

 miration and amazement of all who could obtain sight of this far- 

 fetched flower. As it was found to be so easy of propagation, in 

 a few years every country casement had the pride of sheltering 

 this Chinese prodigy, until the cottager for want of pence to pur- 

 chase flower pots, planted it in the open ground ; when, as if it 

 gloried to breathe the air of this land of liberty, it soon surpassed 

 in strength and beauty all the inmates of the " gardens, in which 

 art supplies the fervour and the force of Indian skies." 



We have no plant on record, either of utility or beauty, that has 

 spread itself so rapidly over the whole country as this rose has 

 done in our own age. It now climbs up to look into the attic 

 windows of those very houses where we once saw it peep out at 

 the lower casement; and it is not uncommon to see its petals blush 

 through a veil of snow, in the month of December ; a thing so un- 

 usual formerly, that no longer back than the year 1800, Mrs. Mary 

 Robinson wrote the following verses on seeing a rose in flower 

 at a cottage door on Egham-hill, on the 25th of October of that 

 year. 



" Why dost thou linger still, sweet flower ? 



Why yet remain, thy leaves to flaunt r 

 This is for thee no fostering hour. 



The cold wind blows, 

 And many a chilling, rutliless showtr, 

 Will now assail thee, beauteous rose ! 



Although it is acknowledged that few plants contribute more 

 agreeably to ornament our shrubberies in the autumnal months 

 than this Chinese rose, yet we would not wish it to exclude or 

 lessen the cultivation of the older and more beautiful species, but 

 which, we fear, it has already done to a considerable degree. As 

 the smallest cuttings of this rose will grow, we are not without 

 the hope of seeing it creep into our hedge rows, where it would 

 soon propagate itself both by suckers and seed; for it ripens its 

 fruit in this climate, as perfectly as those of our native briers, and 

 the hips of the Chinese rose are particularly ornamental, from their 

 inverted pear shape, fine orange colour, and large size. 



(To be continued.) 



