58 A BOOK ABOUT ROSES 



we not make hedges of the Ayrshire, Sempervirens, 

 Boursault, Japanese, and Sweetbrier Rose ? ^ I have 

 had a hedge of Rosa villosa these twenty years,' 

 writes Mr. Robertson, a nurseryman at Kilkenny, 

 in 1834, * about 8 or 10 feet high, which is a sheet 

 of bloom every May, and throughout the rest of the 

 season flowers with the Boursault, Noisette, Hybrid 

 China, and other Roses which are budded on it/ 

 ' At the Isle of Bourbon,' writes Mr. Rivers, quoting 

 Monsieur Breon, in the * Rose Amateurs' Guide,' 

 *the inhabitants generally enclose their land with 

 hedges made of two rows of Roses — one row of the 

 Common China Rose, the other of the Red Four 

 Seasons.' And in the Gardeners Chroi^icle of June 

 19, 1869, we have the description of a hedge of 

 Roses, grown at Digswell, Hertfordshire, 280 feet 

 in length. 



Catullus, in one beautiful line, describes the benign 

 and gracious influences which we should seek to 

 obtain for the Rose. He writes of a flower, 



* Quern mulcent auras, firmat sol, educat imber,' 



to which the air nimbly and sweetly recommends 

 itself, bringing the complexion of beauty, but not 

 visiting the cheek too roughly, which the sun 

 strengthens but does not scorch, which the shower 

 refreshes but the tempest spares. Such a genial 



