94' MASSACHUSETTS HOETICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



dewy wine, cover the sacred ground. No frost there visits the 

 grass. Emblems of life continually exist, and roses glow in gem- 

 like tints, hanging in cataracts from the gra}' walls of the fortified 

 villages, topped by a crown of foliage. Amid such scenes the 

 traveller exclaims in wonder, " Who can paint like nature ! " as 

 he views this shadowy curtain of gorgeous colors on mouldering 

 stone-work when the sun goes down behind the amethyst-tinted 

 hills. 



" Soon we shall see the swelling buds, 



As one by one their tender leaves unfold; 

 As if they knew that warmer suns were near, 

 Nor longer sought to hide from winter's cold." 



Transitor}', almost ephemeral, is a rose's brief life of joy ; but 



its sweetest gift is preserved in soft perfume as w^e drink the 



breath of the crushed, roral leaves, after they have fallen and 

 withered. 



*' She did not care to see their glorious hues, 

 Fearing the richer perfume slie might lose." 



" Yet, though thou fade, 

 From thy dead leaves let fragrance rise. 

 And teach that virtue lives when beauty dies." 



" And yet may sweet things with us stay; 

 As in the garden roses blow 

 In white and red, — just as they lay 

 In white and red so long ago." 



Discussion. 



Edward L. Beard said, that the greatest obstacle to rose culture 

 is that people do not understand the method of keeping the bushes 

 free from insects. This is the greatest necessity' in rose culture, 

 and nothing but eternal vigilance will effect it. People complain 

 that their bushes are eaten up, and want some easj' method of 

 keeping them clean ; but there is no royal road to this result- 

 Roses require pruning, and sometimes get soil-sick, and the soil 

 must be renewed ; but keeping them clean is a more important 

 point than either of these ; it is the great necessity to make rose 

 culture popular. Insecticides must be constantly applied, and 



