THE SCENTS OF THE GARDEN 235 



fragrant, and it is a disappointment to find that such a 

 beautiful flower as Baroness Rothschild is wanting in 

 the sweet scent that would be the fitting complement 

 of its incomparable form, and to perceive in so hand- 

 some a Rose as Malmaison a heavy smell of decidedly 

 bad quality. But such cases are not frequent. 



There is much variety in the scent of the Tea-Roses, 

 the actual tea flavour being strongest in the Dijon 

 class. Some have a powerful scent that is very near 

 that of a ripe Nectarine ; of this the best example I 

 know is the old rose Goubault. The half-double red 

 Gloire de Rosamfene has a delightful scent of a kind 

 that is rare among Roses. It has a good deal of the 

 quality of that mysterious and delicious smell given off 

 by the dying strawberry leaves, aromatic, pungent, 

 and delicately refined, searching and powerful, and yet 

 subtle and elusive — the best sweet smell of all the year. 

 One cannot have it for the seeking; it comes as it 

 will — a scent that is sad as a forecast of the inevitable 

 certainty of the flower-year's waning, and yet sweet 

 with the promise of its timely new birth. 



Sometimes I have met with a scent of somewhat 

 the same mysterious and aromatic kind when passing 

 near a bank clothed with the great St. John's Wort. 

 As this also occurs in early autumn, I suppose it to be 

 occasioned by the decay of some of the leaves. And 

 there is a small yellow-flowered Potentilla that has a 

 scent of the same character, but always freely and 

 willingly given off — a humble-looking Uttle plant, well 



