144 DESCRIPTION OF THE ROSE. 



Tea Rose and one of the Ayrshires ; for it has much of the 

 fragrance of the former. 



" I have a steep bank of a hard white clay," says an 

 English writer, " which, owing to a cutting made in the 

 road, became too steep for cultivation. About sixteen 

 years since, this was planted with Ayrshire and other 

 climbing roses. Holes were made in the hard soil with a 

 pick, two feet over and two feet deep ; some manure mixed 

 with the clay, after it had lain exposed to frost to mellow 

 it, and climbing roses planted. This bank is, when the 

 roses are in bloom, a mass of beauty : I have never seen 

 any thing in climbing roses to equal it. On another bank, 

 they are gradually mounting to the tops of the trees: 

 none of them have ever been pruned. Ayrshire roses, as 

 articles of decoration in places unfitted for other ornamen- 

 tal climbers, are worthy of much more attention than they 

 have hitherto received. 



The following extract from the "Dundee Courier" of 

 July 11, 1837, will give some idea how capable these roses 

 are of making even a wilderness a scene of beauty : 



" Some years ago, a sand-pit at Ellangowan was filled 

 up with rubbish found in digging a well. Over this a 

 piece of rock was formed for the growth of plants which 

 prefer such situations, and amongst them were planted 

 some half-dozen plants of the Double Ayrshire Rose, 

 raised in this neighborhood about ten years ago. These 



