6o 



SUMMER 



them, too, have double virtues. The dog-rose, which is the 

 master of them all, carries flowers which are very pink, almost 

 as pink as the unopened buds, and others which are nearly 

 white, only less white than the flowers of the most popular 

 rival to the dog-rose, rosa arvensis. This ' rose of the field ' 

 is common in most places, and often accepted locally as a 

 variety of the dog-rose. But the kinship is remote. Its 

 scent is very much more distinct and sweet. Its petals have 



the rich crumpled look of some rock-rose petals, arid the wide 

 golden centre raised to prominence in the shallow cup lends 

 it an attraction very rare in the family. Soon, too, one learns 

 to pick out its guise, its habit of growth, from afar as one 

 distinguishes the pattern of an oak from an ash. It aspires 

 nearly as high, but the flowers are ranged in arcs of branches 

 that set out horizontally from the main stem. 



Both the common wild roses that light the June hedge- 

 row have fathered some of the loveliest garden roses at a 

 remote date : and many an experiment has been made with 



