71 



CHAPTER V. 



ROSES AND JASMINES. 



THESE most delicious, most elegant flowers in 

 themselves a garden are worthy of a chapter de- 

 voted exclusively to their culture. What cottage 

 exists without its roses twined around the door- 

 way, or blooming up its pathway ? What is senti- 

 ment without its roses ? What 'other flower illus- 

 trates the beauty and excellence of a loved one 1 



" Oh ! my love is like the red, red rose, 

 That sweetly blows in June," 



Every gentle feeling, every exquisite thought, every 

 delicate allusion, is embodied in the rose. It is 

 absurd to say the rose by another name " would 

 smell as sweet." It is not so. Poetry, painting, 

 and music, have deified the rose. Call it " nettle," 

 and we should cast it from our hands in disgust. 



There are innumerable varieties of roses, from 

 the cottage rose to the fairy rose, whose buds are 

 scarcely so large as the bells of the lily of the 

 valley. Mrs. Gore mentions some hundreds of 

 sorts, but such a catalogue is too mighty to insert in 

 my little work. I will name only the well-known 

 hardy kinds, and refer my reader to Mrs. Gore her- 

 self for the complete collection. Seed yields such 

 inexhaustable varieties, that a new list will be re- 

 quired every ten years. 



The Damask rose is very useful from its proper- 

 ties, as well as its beauty and hardihood. Rose- 



