$6 A BOOK ABOUT ROSES 



below, robbed by branches of its sunshine, and by 

 roots of its soil, it sickens, droops, and dies. A 

 Rose under trees can no more flourish than a deer 

 can get a good * head ' who never leaves the forest 

 for the moor. 



These regicides were none the less correctly told 

 — both those who kill by suffocation, and those who 

 starve our Queen to death — that the Rose must have 

 a free circulation of air, and likewise repose and rest. 

 The directions may seem to be incongruous, but 

 they can be, and must be, followed. The Rosarium 

 must be both exposed and sheltered ; a place both 

 of sunshine and of shade. The centre must be clear 

 and open, around it the protecting screen. It must 

 be a fold wherein the sun shines warmly on the 

 sheep, and the wind is tempered to the shorn lamb ; 

 a haven in which the soft breeze flutters the sail, 

 but over which the tempest roars, and against whose 

 piers the billow hurls itself, in vain. 



And this may, I think, be taken consequently as 

 a golden rule in the formation of a Rose-garden : 

 so arrange it that a large proportion of your trees 

 may have the sunshine on them from its rise to the 

 meridian, and after that time be in shadow and in 

 repose. To effect this, the garden must extend in 

 longitude from north to south rather than from east 

 to west — the form being oblong or semicircular. 



