CHAPTER XL 



SPECIAL FLOWER GARDEN, ETC. 



" Bless me, what a delightful prospect is here ! And so it ought 

 to be, for this garden was designed for pleasure, but for honest 

 pleasure ; the entertainment of the sight, the smell, and the 

 refreshment of the very mind." ERASMUS. 



IN addition to the flowers which are grown in the general flower 

 garden, it is usual for the floriculturist to have some speciality 

 of his own, in which he takes particular delight. I must confess that 

 I am a general lover of flowers, and do not concentrate my attention 

 upon any one group. Nevertheless I have rosaries, climbing plants, 

 orchids, and alpine plants, which are my special flowers. 



THE ROSARIES. 



" Salut, reirie des fleurs, salut, vermeille rose ! 

 A peine le matin a vu ta fleur dclore, 

 Cue les jeunes zephyrs, d'un doux zele emportes, 

 Racontent ta naissance aux bosquets enchante's." CHENEDOLLE. 



Of all the florists' flowers, that is to say, of all the flowers which 

 have been altered in character by careful selection, and by the cultivation 

 of the gardener, the rose holds perhaps the first rank. Nine persons 

 out of ten declare that it is their favourite flower ; nevertheless I have 

 looked at the wild rose over and over again, and asked myself whether, 

 upon the whole, nature untouched is not far more perfect than nature 

 improved by art. The Rose is used as a mystical emblem by the 

 Church of Rome, to which Dante alludes when he writes 



, " Here is the rose 



Wherein the Word Divine was made incarnate." 



