THE PRESIDENTS’ GARDENS 143 
are still there, as are also four “sweet shrubs”— 
Calycanthus floridus —which came from the same gar¬ 
den. 
The pink rose, called the Mary Washington for the 
General’s mother, was planted and named by him; 
while the Nellie Custis rose, which he also named and 
put in another corner, is the fragrant white, velvet- 
textured flower of romance that, from witnessing the 
love making and betrothal of ardent Lawrence Lewis, 
the General’s favorite nephew, and black-eyed Nellie 
Custis, his wife’s granddaughter, acquired a spell so 
potent to stimulate indifferent or procrastinating 
suitors that none who come within its influence to this 
day can resist it. Hence these rich white buds and 
blossoms have ever been much sought by maids of 
high and low degree, whose affections are set on the 
unsuspecting and unresponsive; for to present “him” 
with either flower or bud, so tradition avows, or lead 
him to inhale its fragrance, quickens the coldest 
masculine heart—such was the rare quality of these 
old lovers’ love, clinging to, intoxicating and saturat¬ 
ing for all time the sympathetic rose, even as the rose 
breathed its fragrance over and around them, to 
heighten their delight. 
Laughable is the General’s comment on this court¬ 
ship, by the way, for he had utterly failed to observe 
it though it was going on right under his nose. 
