Pot-pourri from a Surrey garden

folio in three volumes. The title-page states that the drawings have been reduced, re-engraved, and coloured under the eye of Monsieur Eedoute, 1824. He had now become famous. The title , is ' Les Koses, par P. J. Eedoute, avec le texte par C. A. Thorry ' — the order of the artist and author being just reversed from that in the work of his early days, ' Le Jardin de la Malmaison.' The book begins with the following charming sentence : — ' Les poetes ont fonde dans I'opinion les seules monarchies h^reditaires que le temps ait respectees : le lion est toujours le roi des animaux, 1'aigle le monarque des airs, et la rose la reine des fleurs. Les droits des deux premiers 6tablis sur la force et maintenus par elle avaient en eux-memes la raison suffisante de leur dure'e ; la souverainete1 de la rose, moins violemment reconnue et plus librement consentie, a quelque chose de plus flatteur pour le trone et de plus honorable pour les fondateurs.' Anyone who cares about Eoses ought to try and see this book at the Botanical Library of the Natural History Museum at South Kensington, as it is very full of sug- gestions. Had I a soil that suitfed Eoses, and room to grow them in, I should try and make a collection of the wild Eoses of the world and the roses figured by Eedout6 in 1824, many of which I have never seen. The Banksia Eose, which now covers the walls all along the Eiviera, is- here called Le Hosier de Lady Banks (wife of the botanist Sir Joseph Banks). There are Moss Eoses and China Eoses, and every form and kind of Eglantine ; but nothing larger or more double than the Cabbage Eose. The Malmaison Eose, though called after Josephine's garden, must have been a much later introduction. In fact, in 1824 there were no Eoses and no Strawberries in our sense of the word. Even what is now called the Old Maiden's Blush is not in the book. The E. lucida, which I grow p 210 POT-POURRI FROM A SURREY GARDEN successfully in Surrey (for it is easy of cultivation, and has a lovely foliage), the York and Lancaster, and the Centi- folia are all in this book. Even my small edition I look upon as one of my chief treasures ; it is bound in an old-fashioned bright-green leather. I suppose few people have seen this book, otherwise I cannot imagine how anyone has ever had the courage to publish the modern illustrated Rose books with pictures that look so coarse and vulgar in comparison with these delicate coloured prints. 1804. 'Exotic Botany, by James Edward Smith, President of the Linnean Society ; figures by James Sowerby. Two volumes in one.' This book is, of course, an English one, but on the title-page is the following quotation from Rousseau's seventh ' Promenade.' I copy it, as it expresses the feeling of the times :— * II y a dans la botanique un charme qu'on ne sent que dans le plein calme des passions, mais qui sumt seul alors pour rendre la vie heureuse et douce : mais sitot qu'on y mele un motif d'inter6t ou de vanit6 .... tout ce doux charme s'evanouit. On ne voit plus dans les plantes que des instruments de nos passions, on ne trouve plus aucun vrai plaisir dans leur etude. . . . On ne s'occupe que de systemes et de methodes ; matiere eternelle de dispute, qui ne fait pas connaltre une plante de plus .... de la les haines, les jalousies/ &c.