In the Garden It is the hour of the briar
rose ; both dog and field rose are in magnificent flower in the wild, and the garden follows suit. The Penzance briar is perhaps the most useful. If the tip of the long shoots is bent down to a wire the whole of the convex arc is likely to be brilliant with blossom. It is remarkable how very minute a proportion of the sweetbriar scent is lost in these hybrids. A briar rose that is very rarely seen seems to me to have almost supreme claims for the rougher and more spacious places in a garden ; it is Moschata Floribunda. It grows as lustily as, say, Mermaid, the best of the climbers, and its flowers scatter their sweetness to an unusual distance. It is a true species, and grows very readily from cuttings and layers itself freely if left alone. This year the heavily pruned bedding roses are late ; but unpruned bushes have been so floriferous this month that the ground beneath them is a pink or crimson cloth. One bush has maintained a show of about fifty blooms. What a year of blossom it is! As to bedding roses, the immense flowers of President Hoover are as sweet as even Etoile de Hollande or the improved types of
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