AUGUST 147 



with its body curved to deliver the sting, after which 

 it Hew away. 



XXXVI 



Strolling one August morning along a solitary part 

 of our sea-shore, with not a human dwelling The 

 in sight, my eye was attracted from a dis- Ramanau 

 tance by some showy white blossoms. Puzzled 

 at first to identify the plant that bore them, I found 

 on reaching the place that they were borne by a stray 

 plant of the Ramanas rose (Rosa rugosa), which had 

 spread far and wide along a sandbank just above high- 

 water mark. Never before had I seen this rose to such 

 advantage, for it is too coarse and rampant for the 

 flower-garden, although it is a desirable undergrowth 

 in woodland. Here, on the beach, exposed to full sun- 

 shine, its over-luxuriance curbed by Atlantic gales, it 

 has taken on a character vastly superior to that which 

 it displays under cultivation. The hint was worth 

 taking, and I have planted some roots of the crimson 

 flowered form of this rose to contrast with the white 

 one. Coming in this manner upon a garden plant 

 escaped to the wild gives one the same sort of thrill 

 that one feels on overhearing a chance strain of melody 

 from some tuneful maiden in the scullery or a baritone 

 booming in the bathroom. 



The sandbank whereon this rose has flourished is 

 almost the last kind of soil one would have pronounced 

 suitable for it. It is thickly carpeted with Convolvulus 

 soldanella, whereof the lovely rose-tinted chalices have 



