NOVEMBER 209 



folio in three volumes. The title-page states that the 

 drawings have been reduced, re-engraved, and coloured 

 under the eye of Monsieur Redoute", 1824. He had now 

 become famous. The title is ' Les Roses, par P. J. 

 Redoute" , avec le texte par C. A. Thorry ' the order of the 

 artist and author being just reversed from that in the work 

 of his early days, ' Le Jardin de la Malmaison.' The book 

 begins with the following charming sentence : ' Les 

 poetes ont fonde" dans 1'opinion les seules monarchies 

 he're'ditaires que le temps ait respecte'es: le lion est 

 toujours le roi des animaux, 1'aigle le monarque des airs, 

 et la rose la reine des flours. Les droits des deux 

 premiers e"tablis sur la force et maintenus par elle 

 avaient en eux-m^mes la raison suffisante de leur dur6e ; 

 la souverainete' de la rose, moins violemment reconnue 

 et plus librement consentie, a quelque chose de plus 

 flatteur pour le trone et de plus honorable pour les 

 fondateurs.' 



Anyone who cares about Roses ought to try and see 

 this book at the Botanical Library of the Natural History 

 Museum at South Kensington, as it is very full of sug- 

 gestions. Had I a soil that suited Roses, and room to 

 grow them in, I should try and make a collection of the 

 wild Roses of the world and the roses figured by Redoute" 

 in 1824, many of which I have never seen. The Banksia 

 Rose, which now covers the walls all along the Riviera, is 

 here called Le Easier de Lady Banks (wife of the botanist 

 Sir Joseph Banks). There are Moss Roses and China 

 Roses, and every form and kind of Eglantine ; but nothing 

 larger or more double than the Cabbage Rose. The 

 Malmaison Rose, though called after Josephine's garden, 

 must have been a much later introduction. In fact, in 

 1824 there were no Roses and no Strawberries in our sense 

 of the word. Even what is now called the Old Maiden's 

 Blush is not in the book. The R. lucida, which I grow 



p 



