308 POPULAR GARDEN FLOWERS 



Sweetbrier, with its foliage that has so delightful a 

 pungency, especially in the evening after rain, is the 

 Eglantine of Shakespeare 



" Quite overcanopied with luscious Woodbine, 

 With sweet Musk Roses and with Eglantine, 

 There sleeps Titania . . ." 



This is the Rosa rubiginosa of the botanists, and there are 

 many forms of it. It is fond of the heaths and of the 

 chalk hills of southern England. The smaller-flowered 

 Sweetbrier of Scotland, Ireland, and the Channel Islands 

 is Rosa micrantha. 



Beautiful Briers. These wild Roses are not without 

 garden interest, as improved forms have sprung from 

 them. For instance, there are the beautiful hybrid 

 briers of Lord Penzance, which have the leaf fragrance 

 of the dear old Eglantine with larger and more brilliant 

 flowers. They are splendid pillar plants, and alike in the 

 beauty of their flowers, the brilliance of their large hips, 

 and their perfume, they are remarkable. A few of the 

 best of these fine singles, with their spicy leaves, are 

 worth adding to any collection of pillar Roses. 



Damask and Hybrid Perpetual Roses.- Old Roses 

 other than wildings which the garden-lover feels a 

 special interest in are the Damask, the Monthly (China), 

 and the Bourbon. The first, the Rosa damascena of 

 botanists, is reputed to have come from Syria in 1573, 

 so that there is no reason why Shakespeare should not 

 have known it and made use of it in the line 



" Gloves as sweet as Damask Roses." 



It bears pink flowers in June, and was certainly one of 

 the parents of the modern Hybrid Perpetual Rose, with 

 its large, richly coloured, powerfully scented flowers. 

 The Old China or Monthly, which is in bloom most of 



