Old Time Gardens 
3 2 ° 
of the maids of honor to Queen Elizabeth, was made 
very ill by the presence or scent of Roses. This 
illness was not akin to “ Rose cold,” which is the 
baneful companion of so many Americans, and 
which can conquer its victims in the most sudden 
and complete manner. 
Even my affection for Roses, and my intense 
love of their fragrance, shown in its most ineffable 
sweetness in the old pink Cabbage Rose, will not 
cause me to be silent as to the scent of some of the 
Rose sisters. Some of the Tea Roses, so lovely of 
texture, so delicate of hue, are sickening ; one has a 
suggestion of ether which is most offensive. “ A 
Rose by any other name would smell as sweet,” but 
not if its name (and its being) was the Persian Yellow. 
This beautiful double Rose of rich yellow was intro- 
duced to our gardens about 1830. It is infrequent 
now, though I find it in florists’ lists ; and I suspect 
I know why. Of late years I have not seen it, but I 
have a remembrance of its uprootal from our garden. 
Mrs. Wright confirms my memory by calling it “a 
horrible thing — the Skunk Cabbage of the garden.” 
It smells as if foul insects were hidden within it, a 
disgusting smell. I wonder whether poor Marie de’ 
Medici hadn’t had a whiff of it. A Persian Rose ! 
it cannot be possible that Omar Khayyam ever smelt 
it, or any of the Rose singers of Persia, else their 
praises would have turned to loathing as they fled 
from its presence. There are two or three yellow 
Roses which are not pleasing, but are not abhorrent 
as is the Persian Yellow. 
One evening last May I walked down the garden 
