46 IN A GLOUCESTERSHIRE GARDEN 



must not be spurred in, as most gardeners are tempted 

 to do, but nailed in carefully, while old and useless 

 branches are as carefully removed. The plant has 

 rather an interesting history. The date of its intro- 

 duction is not known for certain, but it was first 

 described (the double white form) in the Botanical 

 Magazine for 1818, as Lady Banks' Rose; but all that 

 could be told of it was that it was a native of China, 

 and had been introduced in 1807 by William Kerr. 

 The double yellow seems to have been introduced about 

 ten years later ; while the single yellow, the typical 

 native plant of China and Japan, has only been recently 

 introduced. The curious thing about these three plants 

 is that the typical plant, the single yellow, is by far 

 the tenderest; and that while the single and double 

 yellow are almost scentless, the double white is one of 

 the sweetest of roses, so that I once heard an old 

 gardener, whose chief pride was in an old Banksia 

 rose which he managed to perfection, declare that 

 when in full flower he could smell it though more than 

 a hundred yards away from it. 



April is rich in flowers, and so Chaucer chose ' Aprille 

 with his schowres swoote,' when 



'Zephirus eke with his swetc breeth 

 Enspirud hath in every holte and heeth 

 The tendre croppes '- 



