564 THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [Feb. 1, 1902. 
schemfls should be suggested to suit diverse interests 
but as this one hits us very hard I ask you to protest 
against its adoption to the utmost of yoar ability. 
Gentlemen, vfe are all loyal sons of the Empire, we 
are all ready to pay our share of the expenaes of 
the war, but I ask yon, are we not already 
doing so almost to breaking point ? An increase of 
duty, and the subsequent check to production, would, 
be^a burden too grievous to be borne, and oar industry 
would be crippled to the point of extinction. In 
these days of Imp>='rial leravioa io i-i sn-L-prisi-ig, 
that British tea gvinTii in Bri.ish russessions with 
British capital by piiti i; ,c Britons, liouldhe swooped 
down upon to prov; i iri :t i used Revenue when 
almost every ar „ ! pi'.duction is admitted 
dnfc? free. This m ..i.i.i political economy in 
theory, but in prdctiue I would like to see free trade in 
British produce throughout the iltitish Empire and a 
duty imposed on all foreign articles and on every 
letter of the words " Made in Germany." Gentlemen, 
I beg to move the following Resolution : — . . 
" That this Association emphatically protest as a 
matter of vital interest against the suggestion to in- 
' crease the British import duty on tea." 
Mr H M Knight, in seconding the reaolation, pointed 
outthat the present duty of 6d per lb, was equivalent 
to 100 per cent on the value of Iiadan teas sold in 
1900 01 and that theindustry cannot bear any increased 
burden. Many gardens did not sell their teas in these 
two years at a price that recouped them from the 
cost of production, in fact made a considerable loss, 
and in consequence some concerns had closed their 
doors, and if the proposed tax is opted many more 
must follow their example ia S. India, parried 
em cen. 
The Meeting then ended. — Madras Mail, Jan. 31. 
♦ 
THE ROSE FOR MERRY ENGLAND. 
Our American cousins are now much exercised in 
their minds as to what flower tl:ny shall ad-jpt as a 
national badge. The discussions have been long and 
varied. Even now, no concia.ion has been de- 
finitely arrived at. The liiae question has 
turned up here in connection with the Coronation 
ceremonial next June. We should not have thought 
that there was room for any dispute on tbe subject. 
The rose has been for centuries so entwined with 
our history that wo should have supposed no other 
flower could havo been budded on a British stock. 
The rose is said to have been the badge of Edward I. 
in the thirteenth century; in 1397 John of Gaunt 
bequeathed to the altar in St Paul's his coverlet of 
cloth of gold sprinkled with golden Roses. We had 
thought it possible that on one or more of the 
numerous shields on the tombs of the Black Prince 
and of hlenry IV. in the Cathedral at Canterbury, a 
conventional representation of the Rose might have 
been found. Through the courtesy of the Dean, we 
are enabled to say that this conjecture is erroneous, 
and that neither on the tomb of the Black Prince, 
ror on his hauberk still preserved in the Cathedral, 
is there any representation of a Rose. Its connection 
with the houses ofl Lancaster and of York is, of 
course, knowa to all of us, and was forcibly recalled 
to mind last summer when a Rose show was held in 
the historic Temple Gardens. In Tudor times the 
Rose was constantly used as an architectural adorn- 
ment, and may still be seen at Westminster, and many 
a similar fane. 
From this point of view it is interesting to quote 
what Evelyn, writingin 1679, says: "For even the very 
Damank Rose itself, as my Lord Bacon tells us. 
Cent. 2, Ex|). 059, is little more than an hundred 
yeais old in England." Gompave this with what is 
said by Paikiuaon, writing in 1629. Parkinson men- 
tions liiirty sorts in his gaiden, everyone notably 
differing from the other. 
But when the Rose was adopted as a national em- 
blem, Canada, Australia, Tasmania, and New Zealand 
had not been discovered ; and— except in Canada — 
there is not a native Rose in either colony ; nor is 
there any part of South Africa, the West Indies, 
Mauritius, or Ceylon. Half the British Empire then 
has no Rose unless by introduction. 
When we get a federated Greater Britain, it is 
clear we shall have some difficuly in fixing upon a 
flower that is common to all the component elements. 
This being the case, it will be best to disregard 
points of geographical distribution as pedantic in the 
circumstances, and to fall back on the old heraldic, 
conventional Rose as the floral badge for the whole 
empire. 
The Hoi3. Mrs. Boyle, in her charming Ros liosai-um 
— Dew of the Ever-limnii Rose, cites from an old ballad 
some lines, which are so appropriate to the occasion, 
that no apology need be offered for quoting them. 
Alluding to the White Rose of York and the Red Rose 
of Lancaster, the ballad proceeds : — 
" These roses sprang and budded fair, 
And carried such a grace. 
That Kings of England in their arms 
Afford them worthy place. 
And flourish may these Roses long. 
That all the world may tell 
How owners of these princely flow'rs 
In virtues did excel. 
To glorify these roses more, 
King Henry and his Queen 
First placed their pictures in wrought gold 
Most gorgeous to be seen. 
The King's own guard now wear the same 
Upon their back and breast. 
Where love and loyalty remain. 
And evermore shall rest. 
The red rose on the back is plac'd 
Thereon a crown of gold ; 
The White Rose on the breast is brave 
And costly to behold ; 
Bedeck'd most rich with silver studs 
On coat of scarlet red ; 
A blushing hue which England's fame 
Now many a year hath bred." 
The warders of the Tower still wear tunics em 
broidered in the manner here described. 
But in spite of the claims of long descent on the 
part of the Rose, a claim is set up in some quarters 
for the Iris, which some say is the Fleur-de-Lys. 
Unfortunately for this contention, it is not yet settled 
whether the device is really intended to represent an 
Iris, a Lily, or a spear-head I 
Again, Fleur de Louis is considered to have been 
the original name, and this has been converted into 
Fleur de Luce, Fleur de Lys, and Fleur de Lis 
Prior, in his Popular Names of British Plants, men- 
tions the legend that a shield charged with these 
flowers was brought to Clovis from heaven while 
engaged in battle against the Saracens. They were 
assumed by Louis VII. in 1137 as his device, and 
later on they were bestowed on Joan of Arc. 
No doubt several of our monarchs did quarter of 
the Fleur-de-Lys on their coats of arms as a testi- 
mony of their rights in France, rights now happily 
long become obsolete, and consequently also the 
claim to quarter the Fleur-de-Lys. 
Another claimant put forward for heraldic recos- 
nitioa is the Lily-of-the- Valley, a native plant of 
unsurpassed elegance and delicious fragrance, but 
having no claim whatever to b,' accepted as a national 
emblem. Much historical interest attaches to the 
rose and to the Flsur-de-Lys, but the Lily-of-the- 
Valley is totally devoid of any such relation. What 
the "Lily-of-the- Valleys " of the Ciuticles may have 
been we do not know, but we may be pretty sure 
it was not wha> we call the Lily-of the Valley, which 
is not a native of Palestine, 
