BIFEROCS ROSES.
One of the features of this September is the great profusion of roses flowering for the third or even fourth time. And the blooms are in many gardens suggestive of July at its best. I saw this week a bush or two of that lovely but, I think, not very widely distributed rose, "Covent Garden," bearing singularly upright blossoms with petals as clear and fresh as if a summer sun had been continuous. The rose is worth growing if only for what may be called the " stance " of its flowers. It has often been said—I fear I have said it myself—that the old roses bloomed only once ; and it was for this reason that Horace with other classical poets lamented their short life. By chance, in looking idly over a selection from Martial (as great a country poet as epigrammatist) I came this week upon a passage in which the poet boasted of twice-flowering (bifem) roses ; though he seems to attribute the phenomenon to the place rather than the variety. What rose was it ?
W. BEACH THOMAS.
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