16 ALPINES AND BOG-PLANTS 



This Burmese giant of his race is a tremendous tropical 

 Liane, whose trunk is girthed like a man ; his flowers, 

 nearly a foot across, if not more, are, says report, of a 

 gentle yellow. He has flowered indoors, I beHeve, at 

 Syon, and rumour whispers of a marvellous hybrid that 

 he has made out of doors in favoured Portugal, with 

 Gloire de Dijon. Shall we ever be privileged to see, or 

 fortunate in acclimatising, this portentous offspring of two 

 parents so august .'' As for the other large roses, arkan- 

 sana is only a young seedling with me, and seems, as a 

 matter of fact, inclined to be small ; but I reserve a 

 corner for graceful great Rosa mici-ocarpa, carrying 

 enormous arching boughs bent down by tremendous 

 heads of little white flowers, that in autumn are succeeded 

 by showers of scarlet fruit, very delicate and effective. 

 The same effect, only lovelier, do I expect from my 

 latest novelty, the coral-clustered Rosa yesoensis. 



Qi course, in big gardens, the great cluster-roses all 

 make pictures of unrivalled effect. Never shall I forget, 

 high in the mountains of Japan, one blazing day in 

 summer, how I came on Rosa polyantha making a 

 blinding snowstorm above a little trickling beck in a 

 nook of the jungle. Even so, over craggy boulders, 

 might one shower it in England — or any of the roamers, 

 indeed, such as the exquisite ' Blush Rambler.'' 



And here, to close my roses, I must put in a friendly 

 word for my own ignored countryman, the rare and 

 charming Rosa villosa. Rosa villosa, though I call it 

 rare, is, as a matter of fact, almost as common in the 

 north of England as Rosa canina. But it never wanders 

 southward ; its range is limited, and its charm is far 

 greater. It makes a much smaller, frailer bush than 

 the Dog-rose, admirable in size for the rock-garden. 

 The foliage is faintly grey with fine pubescence, the 

 big flowers are of a blazing crimson as they open. 



