40 WOOD AND GARDEN 



But some of these same free Roses are best of all 

 if left in a clear space to grow exactly as they will 

 without any kind of support or training. So placed, 

 they grow into large rounded groups. Every year, just 

 after the young laterals on the last year's branches 

 have flowered, they throw out vigorous young rods 

 that arch over as they complete their growth, and will 

 be the flower-bearers of the year to come. 



Two kinds of Roses of rambling growth that are 

 rather tender, but indispensable for beauty, are For- 

 tune's Yellow and the Banksias. Pruning the free 

 Roses is always rough work for the hands and clothes, 

 but of all Roses I know, the worst to handle is Fortune's 

 Yellow. The prickles are hooked back in a way that 

 no care or ingenuity can escape; and whether it is 

 their shape and power of cruel grip, or whether they 

 have anything of a poisonous quality, I do not know ; 

 but whereas hands scratched and torn by Rdses in 

 general heal quickly, the wounds made by Fortune's 

 Yellow are much more painful and much slower to get 

 well. I knew an old labourer who died of a rose-prick. 

 He used to work about the roads, and at cleaning the 

 ditches and mending the hedges. For some time I 

 did not see him, and when I asked another old coun- 

 tryman, " What's gone o' Master Trussler ? " the answer 

 was, " He's dead — died of a canker-bush." The wild 

 Dog-rose is still the " canker " in the speech of the old 

 people, and a thorn or prickle is still a "bush." A 

 Dog-rose prickle had gone deep into the old hedger's 



