THE PRESIDENTS' GARDENS 143 



are still there, as are also four "sweet shrubs" — 

 Calycanthus floridus — which came from the same gar- 

 den. 



The pink rose, called the Mary Washington for the 

 General's mother, was planted and named by him; 

 while the Nellie Custis rose, which he also named and 

 put in another corner, is the fragrant white, velvet- 

 textured flower of romance that, from witnessing the 

 love making and betrothal of ardent Lawrence Lewis, 

 the General's favorite nephew, and black-eyed Nellie 

 Custis, his wife's granddaughter, acquired a spell so 

 potent to stimulate indifferent or procrastinating 

 suitors that none who come within its influence to this 

 day can resist it. Hence these rich white buds and 

 blossoms have ever been much sought by maids of 

 high and low degree, whose affections are set on the 

 unsuspecting and unresponsive; for to present "him" 

 with either flower or bud, so tradition avows, or lead 

 him to inhale its fragrance, quickens the coldest 

 masculine heart — such was the rare quality of these 

 old lovers' love, clinging to, intoxicating and saturat- 

 ing for all time the sympathetic rose, even as the rose 

 breathed its fragrance over and around them, to 

 heighten their delight. 



Laughable is the General's comment on this court- 

 ship, by the way, for he had utterly failed to observe 

 it though it was going on right under his nose. 



