FEBRUARY 203 



when we were children, a friend who came from London 

 to see us used to tell us she could not say her prayers in 

 the country it was so dreadfully still ! Fancy missing to 

 that extent the city's noise, the rattle of the cabs down the 

 street, or the measured tread of feet along the pavement ! 

 It is lucky perhaps that what we are used to is what we 

 like best. 



A collector of old books objected to my great praise 

 of ' Les Eoses ' by Eedoute. He says : ' I do not attach 

 the same value to it that you do, and have never found 

 it of much use, as nearly all the Eoses are hybrids and 

 varieties many of which have passed away.' I was 

 no doubt mistaken, but my impression was that the 

 lovely illustrations represent in many instances the wild 

 Eoses of the world, which have ceased to be cultivated, but 

 which could easily be produced again from seed by those 

 who took the trouble. This, I believe, Mr. Paul is doing. 

 I think, as I said before, that in a soil where Eoses grow 

 easily a collection as large as possible of these same wild 

 Eoses would be exceedingly interesting. My correspond- 

 ent goes on to describe a book which I had never seen 

 that treats of all the wild Eoses of the world. He says : 

 ' You should get a coloured copy of Lindley's " Mono- 

 graph of Eoses," 1819. It is an excellent book, both as to 

 plates and descriptions, and, though not common, is cheap. 

 You can see them all at Kew. As you do not mention it, 

 I fancy you cannot have the true York and Lancaster 

 Shakespeare's a very different plant from the one with 

 the splash petals. This difference is so well described in a 

 page of Canon Ellacombe's endlessly interesting " Glou- 

 cestershire Garden " that I give it to you : 



1 " A second favourite double or semi-double Eose is the 

 York and Lancaster, of which there are two kinds ; one a 

 very old Eose in which the petals are sometimes white and 

 sometimes pink, and sometimes white and pink in the same 



