JUNE 71 



allusion to the flower, in singling it out as one of 

 the great losses which had come to him through his 

 blindness : 



'With the year 



Seasons return, but not to me returns 

 Day, or the sweet approach of ev'n or morn, 

 Or sight of vernal bloom or summer's rose.' 



The old rose Lamarque deserves a grateful record. 

 It has always been a great favourite with me, and 

 when in its full beauty I think it almost the most 

 beautiful of white roses. I do not know its exact 

 history, except that it is a tea-scented Noisette (which 

 was a hybrid between fi. Indica and R. nwschata), and 

 is the parent of the Grand Cloth of Gold Rose, but 

 it is not a popular rose, for it is not considered a good 

 exhibition rose, and at the Rose Conference in 1889 

 it only obtained two votes as against nearly eighty 

 for some of the other tea roses, for it has the reputation 

 of being rather tender, which I very much doubt, my 

 plant having been in the same place for certainly over 

 fifty years, during which it must have passed through 

 many a severe winter with little injury. 1 Its numerous 

 trusses of pure white sweet-scented roses are most beauti- 

 ful, especially in dry seasons ; and if I were limited to 



1 In the hard winter of 1895 the Lamarque was less injured than 

 most roses. 



