NOVEMBER 209 



folio in three volumes. The title-page states that the 

 drawings have been reduced, re-engraved, and coloured 

 under the eye of Monsieur Eedoute, 1824. He had now 

 become famous. The title , is ' Les Koses, par P. J. 

 Eedoute, avec le texte par C. A. Thorry ' the order of the 

 artist and author being just reversed from that in the work 

 of his early days, ' Le Jardin de la Malmaison.' The book 

 begins with the following charming sentence : ' Les 

 poetes ont fonde dans I'opinion les seules monarchies 

 h^reditaires que le temps ait respectees : le lion est 

 toujours le roi des animaux, 1'aigle le monarque des airs, 

 et la rose la reine des fleurs. Les droits des deux 

 premiers 6tablis sur la force et maintenus par elle 

 avaient en eux-memes la raison suffisante de leur dure'e ; 

 la souverainete 1 de la rose, moins violemment reconnue 

 et plus librement consentie, a quelque chose de plus 

 flatteur pour le trone et de plus honorable pour les 

 fondateurs.' 



Anyone who cares about Eoses ought to try and see 

 this book at the Botanical Library of the Natural History 

 Museum at South Kensington, as it is very full of sug- 

 gestions. Had I a soil that suitfed Eoses, and room to 

 grow them in, I should try and make a collection of the 

 wild Eoses of the world and the roses figured by Eedout6 

 in 1824, many of which I have never seen. The Banksia 

 Eose, which now covers the walls all along the Eiviera, is- 

 here called Le Hosier de Lady Banks (wife of the botanist 

 Sir Joseph Banks). There are Moss Eoses and China 

 Eoses, and every form and kind of Eglantine ; but nothing 

 larger or more double than the Cabbage Eose. The 

 Malmaison Eose, though called after Josephine's garden, 

 must have been a much later introduction. In fact, in 

 1824 there were no Eoses and no Strawberries in our sense 

 of the word. Even what is now called the Old Maiden's 

 Blush is not in the book. The E. lucida, which I grow 



p 



