XXIV 

 THE BRIER ROSES 



Rosa rubiginosa . . . Sweet Brier, Eglantine 

 And the hybrids known as " Penzance Briers " 



f | ^HE Rose as a shrub has demanded not a chapter, 

 nor a book, but a whole literature to describe 

 JL it, for is it not the King of the Flowers, with 

 infinite possibilities and unnumbered charms? 



" If Zeus chose us a king of the flowers in his mirth, 



He would call to the Rose and would royally crown it ; 

 For the Rose, oh the Rose ! is the grace of the earth, 

 Is the light of the plants that are growing upon it." 



Therefore, in a mere gallery of beautiful shrubs, it is not 

 even remotely possible to do it justice, and all that re- 

 mains is to take some one representative which may 

 suggest faintly the delights of the whole genus. 



The flower of our picture is one of the Penzance 

 Briers, and whether or no these Roses can claim the 

 palm for beauty, at least they can make a just claim to 

 be representative, for they are the cultivated children 

 of our own native Sweet Brier, the poets' Eglantine, 

 the plant which has ever stood as the quintessence of 

 delight, the summit of charm, in our English flora. 



Chaucer well knew the "So sweet an air of the 



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