BORDER ROSES AND CLIMBERS 143 



done them they thankfully repay us in greater gifts of 

 bloom and sweetness. 



First in my affections come the old-fashioned Roses: 



"For the Moss Rose and the Musk Rose, 

 Maiden's Blush and royal Dusk Rose" 



possess a most enduring charm. 



Many people who come into my garden have never 

 seen the old-fashioned Roses at all, so neglected are they 

 nowadays, but they never fail to win admiration for 

 their fine perfume and beguiling simplicity. 



The old Cabbage or Provence Rose, Rosa centifolia, is 

 perhaps the most beautiful, the most fragrant, and the 

 most neglected of these erstwhile favourites. I re- 

 member that there were huge, erect bushes of both the 

 bright pink and the rarer white Provence Rose in the 

 garden where I was a little girl. The flowers are large 

 and full-petalled, borne on long, strong stems, and 

 breathe an ineffable fragrance with which many a 

 modern beauty may well crave to augment her 

 charms. The foliage is a fine dark green and the colour 

 of the flowers a splendid and lavish pink. The white 

 Provence is rare and lovely, having the same full- 

 petalled form as the pink, but less vigorous in habit and 

 in constitution. The Provence Rose is the oldest Rose 

 in cultivation, and its long past is an honourable one, for 

 it has ministered, not only to the human need for 

 beauty for hundreds of years, but was ever in demand 

 for medicinal purposes, for perfumes, and for conserves. 



