i84 A BOOK ABOUT ROSES 



the Gloire de Dijon family, such as L. Belle Lyon- 

 naise, Madame Berard, Reve d'Or, etc., and Annie 

 Ollivier, Bouquet d'Or, Caroline Kuster, Edith Gifford, 

 Homere, Madame Lambard, Marie Van Houtte, and 

 Souvenir d'un ami ; and of the Noisettes, Celine 

 Forestier, Jaune Desprez, Lamarque, Marechal Niel 

 (wall), Reve d'Or, Solfaterre, Triomphe de Rennes, 

 and William Allen Richardson. 



And now, my reader, as when eating our straw- 

 berries in early youth, boys by their mothers', girls by 

 their fathers' sides, we reserved the largest to the last; 

 or as when, in later years, we loved something more 

 dearly even than strawberries — making with the 

 Yorkshire rustic our tender confession, * I loikes poi, 

 Mary ; but O, Mary, I loikes you better nor poi ! ' — 

 we, meeting in mixed company, reserved for our 

 beloved the final fond farewell — or meeting, not in 

 mixed company, found that the sweetest which was, 

 alas ! the parting kiss ; even so have I reserved for 

 my conclusive chapters the Roses which I love the 

 best — those Roses which are chosen for their more 

 perfect beauty, like the fairest maidens at some public 

 fete, to represent the sisterhood before a wondering 

 world. 



