Winter Roses That most praiseworthy of roses, if kept unpruned,
the sweet and thorn- less Zephyrine Drouhin, has surpassed itself this winter. A singularly perfect bud, very sweetly scented, opened on the eve of the 'New Year. Within a few yards the Algerian Iris Stylosa supplied a faggot of blossoms which, mixed with sprays of the naked flowered jasmine, made a bowl that quite cut out the berried decorations. Mermaid, too, was in good flower, but it is not a rose to pick. It was quaint to see these last accompanied by flowering sprays of prunus and viburnum, slightly, but only slightly, accelerated into open blossom by being plucked and put in water. Two very different creatures took advantage of the rare warmth of Christmastide. Winter moths were so numerous between some roadside hedges that the motor headlights suggested a snow shower ; the flakes were continuous. This above ground ; below, the worms returned to the surface in such force that lawns and fairways, so- called, were little better than a tilth. Rooks and thrushes were, so to say, in clover.
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