1 68 A BOOK ABOUT ROSES. 



after as Roses suitable for exhibition ; but not re- 

 quiring them in quantity, he will have ample 

 room to combine with them those varieties which, 

 though their individual flowers are not sufficiently 

 symmetrical for the show, have their own special 

 grace and beauty — the garden Roses, which I 

 now propose to discuss 



He must not omit the blushing, fresh, fragrant 

 Provence. It was to many of us tJie Rose of our 

 childhood, and its delicious perfume passes through 

 the outer sense into our hearts, gladdening them 

 with bright and happy dreams, saddening them 

 with lone and chill awakings. It brings more to 

 us than the fairness and sweet smell of a Rose. 

 We paused in our play to gaze on it, with the 

 touch of a vanished hand in ours, with a father's 

 blessing on our heads, and a mother's prayer that 

 we might never lose our love of the pure and 

 beautiful. H-appy they who retain or regain that 

 love : and thankful am I that, with regard to 

 Roses, the child was father to the man. Yes, I 

 was a Rosarian CBt. med IV., never to be so happy 

 again in this world as when the fingers, which are 

 writing now, plucked from the brookside, from the 

 sunny bank, from the meadow and the hedge- row 

 and the wood, the violet, the primrose, the cow- 

 slip, the orchis, and t/ie rose. Nay, about my 



