238 FLORA AND SYLVA. 



trees growing fastest. Hence the oldest 

 trees should be cut, as giving room for 

 the younger ones to grow, and every 

 possible 'teller' should be marked and 

 saved to this end, but owing to the large 

 number of rabbits everywhere it is diffi- 

 cult to get enough of these natural * tel- 

 lers ' to keep up a proper succession of 

 timber." 





JUNE PICTURES AND JUNE 

 FAILURES. 

 On the 2 1st June I had the pleasure of 

 seeing two pictures, made mainly by 

 Roses and in such simple ways that they 

 tell a story of some import to all who 

 care for and seek the best results that 

 are to be got in our gardens during 

 our all too short — and sometimes cool 

 and wet — summers. The first was at a 

 small country railway station, in borders 

 fenced by wooden palings which were 

 covered by Tea Roses of climbing habit, 

 such as Bouquet d" 0r,Mme.Berard,2,x\(S. 

 U Ideal. They were fountains of lovely 

 colour, and below these great climbers 

 were bushes of Grace Darling, 5 feet 

 high, Marie d" Orleans, Princesse de 

 Sagan, and Mme. Lombard, with a 

 groundwork of Pinks and Rockfoils. 

 Uldial was the finest plant I had ever 

 seen of it, a tall branched pyramid of 

 coppery-red, 8 feet high, although not 

 in a good place, being partly shaded by 

 trees and a shed. None of these Roses 

 were grown in the way recommended in 

 Rose-lists; they had been mostly struck 

 by the station clerk in his garden among 

 the cabbages. Nor did the soil follow the 

 conventional (and false) rule of clayey 

 loam, as it was simply the gritty, dusty, 

 and free sweepings of the station yard. 



The colour effect of the whole was such 

 as an artist might be proud to paint, but 

 only one of rare talent could seize and 

 keep a tithe of its beauty. 



The other Rose picture seen on the 

 same day, was at a sunk fence above 

 which some of the bolder wild Roses 

 had been planted some fourteen years 

 ago and never since touched in the way 

 of cultivation, replanting, or weeding. 

 On Midsummer Day the Japanese Roses 

 in several kinds were already in flower 

 and tumbling over the fence in profu- 

 sion. The Scotch, American, and other 

 wild Roses were not yet in flower, but 

 the Japanese and our own wild Roses 

 gave a glorious effect, as fine in its way 

 as that of the garden Roses just spoken 

 of. The forming of these pictures was 

 a matter of slight cost, while the result 

 was far more precious than that from 

 tender plants put out at this time of the 

 year. In many gardens, especially of the 

 midlands and the north, the bedding 

 plants were not all in place at that very 

 date, and even in place their effect was 

 ugly and the beds almost bare. It would 

 be hard to find a better illustration of 

 the costly, wasteful, and inartistic sys- 

 tem of decorating our cold northern 

 gardens with tender plants. On the 

 same day, a friend went through the 

 London parks, with the result which is 

 given in another column. — Rosa. 



PRIMULA DEORUM. 

 It has given me much pleasure this 

 spring to flower this rare Primula for the 

 first time. My plant — the subject of the 

 engraving — had one flower-spike about 

 8 inches high, bearing twenty blooms, 

 while the surrounding leaves were only 



