Flowers of Summer 



freezing, and it never fully opens its flowers ; but 

 even in its hemispherical state it is very beautiful 

 both in shape and colour ; and on one of my 

 bushes, grown against a wall, I must have had 

 nearly two hundred blooms, more or less open at 

 the same time — really a grand sight. It was very 

 much the same with all the roses ; they were very 

 abundant, very full-coloured, and very clean, and 

 the dry sunny July has produced an unusual effect 

 among the single roses. They are laden with 

 their handsome fruit (hips) at least a month or 

 even six weeks before the usual time, so that we 

 have this year the beauty of their fruit (which I 

 consider a very great, and, in some species, perhaps 

 even the chief beauty) for a month or six weeks 

 longer than usual. But while the garden roses 

 were so beautiful, I noted that among the wild 

 roses the case was quite different. I cannot say 

 why it should be so, but the absence of our 

 beautiful wild roses in the hedgerows was very 

 marked. I was in Tyrol, chiefly among the 

 Dolomites, during July, and the roses were very 

 few, and those few very deficient in flowers. 

 Among the herbaceous plants, the effects of the 

 fine weather of 1899 were seen everywhere. Lark- 

 spurs were very grand,. and even such moisture- 

 loving plants as the phloxes were quite happy 

 in spite of the drought. The fine summer and 

 autumn of 1899 had given them such vigour that 

 they were able to hold their own in the drought 

 of June and July, and both in size and colour 



