52 AN ISLAND GARDEN 



bushes, either just after a shower or after you 

 have been sprinkling them ; let it remain on 

 them for several hours, if the sun is not shining 

 I leave it half a day, but then it must all be 

 carefully washed off, every trace of it, or it will 

 spoil the leaves. This kills or discourages all 

 sorts of insect pests, and the effect of the ashes 

 on the soil about their roots is most beneficial to 

 the Roses. 



As I sat in measureless content by the little 

 flower bed, carefully slipping my pretty Bon 

 Silenes and Catherine Mermets and yellow Sun- 

 sets and the rest out of their pots, and gently 

 firming them in the ground, with plenty of water 

 for refreshment, a cloud of the most delicious 

 perfume brooded about me from a bed of white 

 violets at the left, the hardiest, faithfulest, friend- 

 liest little flowers in the world. I found two 

 small Polyantha Roses had lived all winter in this 

 sheltered bed ; that was indeed a charming find ! 

 At the back of it grows a tall Jacqueminot, a 

 black Tuscany Rose, and the strong white Rosa 

 Rugosa, a Japanese variety which bears very 

 large single flowers in the greatest profusion. 

 This Rose is extremely valuable, easily obtained, 

 so hardy as to be almost indestructible, and abso- 

 lutely untroubled by any disease or insect plague 

 whatever. Its foliage is always fresh and hand- 

 some, and its seed vessels are huge scarlet balls 

 as large as an average Crab-Apple, most ornamen- 

 tal after the flowers are gone. But the old, old 

 black Tuscany Rose is the most precious of all. 

 Mine came from an ancient garden that vanished 



