464 Old Time Gardens 



of Mrs. Mabel Osgood Wright, author of Flowers 

 and Trees in their Haunt s> I saw, this spring, a 

 giant Madame Plantier which had over five thou- 

 sand buds, and which could scarcely be equalled in 

 beauty by any modern Roses. Its photograph gives 

 scant idea of its size. 



What gratitude we have in spring to the Sweet- 

 brier ! How early in the year, from sprouting 

 branch and curling leaf, it begins to give forth its 

 pure odor! Gracious and lavish plant, beloved in 

 scent by every one, you have no rival in the spring 

 garden with its pale perfumes. The Sweetbrier and 

 Shakespeare's Musk Rose (Rosa moschata) are said 

 to be the only Roses that at evening pour forth their 

 perfume; the others are what Bacon called "fast of 

 their odor." 



The June Rose, called by many the Hedgehog 

 Rose, was, I think, the first Rose of summer. A 

 sturdy plant, about three feet in height ; set thick 

 with briers, it well deserved its folk name. The flow- 

 ers opened into a saucer of richest carmine, as fra- 

 grant as an American Beauty, and the little circles 

 of crimson resembling the Rosa rugosa were seen 

 in every front dooryard. 



In the Walpole garden from whence came to us 

 our beloved Ambrosia, was an ample Box-edged 

 flower bed which my mother and the great-aunt 

 called The Rosery. One cousin, now living, recalls 

 with distinctness its charms in 1830; for it was beauti- 

 ful, though the vast riches of the Rose-world of 

 China and Japan had not reached it. There grew 

 in it, he remembers, Yellow Scotch Roses, Sweet- 



