FEBRUARY 207 



illustrations represent in many instances the wild Roses 

 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 

 Roses grow easily a collection as large as possible of 

 these same wild Roses would be exceedingly interesting. 

 My correspondent goes on to describe a book — which I 

 had never seen — that treats of all the wild Roses of the 

 world. He says : ' You should get a coloured copy of 

 Lindley's "Monograph of Roses," 1819. It is an excel- 

 lent 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 dif- 

 ferent plant from the one with the splash petals. This 

 difference is so well described in a page of Canon Ella- 

 combe's endlessly interesting "Gloucestershire Garden" 

 that I give it to you : 



' "A second favourite double or semi-double Rose is 

 the York and Lancaster, of which there are two kinds ; 

 one a very old Rose in which the petals are sometimes 

 white and sometimes pink, and sometimes white and 

 pink in the same flower. This is without a doubt the 

 ' roses damasked, red and white ' — the rose ' nor red 

 nor white, had stolen of both' — of Shakespeare, and it 

 is the B. versicolor of the old botanical writers. In the 

 other sort, the petals are a rich crimson flaked with 

 white ; it is a very handsome Rose, comparatively 

 modern, and is the Bosa mundi of the ' Botanical Maga- 

 zine,' 1794." ' I have lately seen a double Bosa lucida, 

 a great improvement on the single one ; also a double 

 white Bosa rugosa. 



Since writing the above, I have succeeded in pro- 

 curing through my Frankfort friend a coloured copy of 



