70 SEA-SIDE PLANTS. 



consider the flower which we now call the Prince's 

 Feather so beautiful as that the " pencil of the 

 most curious painter is at a stay when he comes 

 to set him downe in his lively colours." But we 

 can rejoice still with Hafiz, when he sang, " cup- 

 bearer, the season of the rose is come/' and could 

 respond to the feelings of the writer of the 

 " Wisdom of Solomon," when, rejoicing in the glad 

 season of the early year, he sang, " Let no flower 

 of the Spring pass by us. Let us crown ourselves 

 with rosebuds before they be gathered." The rose 

 is as much loved as ever, and gathered with de- 

 light, whether it hang out from the pleasant hedge 

 of some green lane, or we meet with it unexpectedly 

 growing on the sands among the sea-weeds and 

 other objects which the wind has carried up from 

 the waters, to strew the shore. Few, indeed, are 

 the roses to be found here, yet one is by no means 

 uncommon, even close down, and unsheltered from 

 the sea-breeze; while on sandy fields, at a little 

 distance from the sea, it is very abundant. On 

 many inland chalky and sandy places it is a well 

 known blossom, and generally a favourite with 

 those who are fond of wild flowers. The Burnet- 

 rose (Rosa spinosissimd) is the earliest flowering 

 kind of all our wild roses, and though it has not 

 the delicate blush of the wild brier, it is extremely 

 pretty, with its small flowers, sometimes tinged 

 with cream colour, sometimes lightly tinged with 

 a dash or two of pink hue, but more often of pure 

 white. It generally, when growing near the sea, 

 lies very flat on the shore, but its branches are 

 covered with its sweet-scented flowers, the odour 

 of which is said by Sir William Hooker to be in 

 some varieties disagreeable. It spreads widely, 



