320 Old Time Gardens 



of the maids of honor to Queen Elizabeth, was made 

 very ill by the presence or scent of Roses. This 

 illness was not akin to " Rose cold," which is the 

 baneful companion of so many Americans, and 

 which can conquer its victims in the most sudden 

 and complete manner. 



Even my affection for Roses, and my intense 

 love of their fragrance, shown in its most ineffable 

 sweetness in the old pink Cabbage Rose, will not 

 cause me to be silent as to the scent of some of the 

 Rose sisters. Some of the Tea Roses, so lovely of 

 texture, so delicate of hue, are sickening ; one has a 

 suggestion of ether which is most offensive. " A 

 Rose by any other name would smell as sweet," but 

 not if its name (and its being) was the Persian Yellow. 

 This beautiful double Rose of rich yellow was intro- 

 duced to our gardens about 1830. It is infrequent 

 now, though I find it in florists' lists ; and I suspect 

 I know why. Of late years I have not seen it, but I 

 have a remembrance of its uprootal from our garden. 

 Mrs. Wright confirms my memory by calling it "a 

 horrible thing — the Skunk Cabbage of the garden." 

 It smells as if foul insects were hidden within it, a 

 disgusting smell. I wonder whether poor Marie de' 

 Medici hadn't had a whiff of it. A Persian Rose ! 

 it cannot be possible that Omar Khavyam ever smelt 

 it, or any of the Rose singers of Persia, else their 

 praises would have turned to loathing as they fled 

 from its presence. There are two or three yellow 

 Roses which are not pleasing, but are not abhorrent 

 as is the Persian Yellow. 



One evening last May I walked down the garden 



