The Washington times., 1902-06-08
AN ENGLISH GARDEN.

In My Vicarage Garden and Else
where" is the delightfully."- suggestive
title of a book by Canon Ellacombe-
Rev Henry n. Ellacombe, vicar of Bit
ton. Gloucestershire. The book Is just
the sort CT rambling, gossipy. yet fin
ished essays on gardening which one
would suppose it to be.
The interest of this book for those
who have gardens OF their own will of
course lie in the authors suggestions
about the raising and selection of flow
ers: but it cannot fail to please all
lovers of nature History and poetry
are mingled more or less freely with
the dissertations on plant culture, as is
pretty certain to be the case in any
book treating of the subject except
florists catalogue.
One chapter is devoted to the York
and Lancaster roses, of which the au-
thor says, among other things:
"Of the two kinds one has certainly
been known in England more than 800
years 1t is a variety of Rosa Damas-
/
color. 1t is an upright rose, often grow
! ing six feet high, and in good seasons
| bearing a large number of semi double
roses, of which some are white, some
pink, and some white and pink combined.
! The flowers are not large, but it is
very pretty rose, very hardy, and can
/ be increased by cuttings or suckers; it
produces few red pear-shaped hips.
and believe, though have never tried.
that it comes true from seed.
at wOulG be very interesting If we
could find out wien this rose first ap-
peared in England. There is no GER
tain record of it, but l am inclined to
think that it was not seen in English
gardens before the latter part of the
sixteenth century. Before that time
all roses are described as either red or
white"
This was probably the rose which
readers of George Eliot will remember
as growing in Martin Poyser's garden
when Adam and Hetty gathered cur
rants there.
Here is a curious bit of plant-lore
which will throw light on some of the
practices of the old-fashoncd herb
doctors:"
In a very large number of plants the
good or bad qualities of a plant can be
distinguished by the growth, shape, |
color etc, of the stems, leaves. or
flowers: so that even without deep |
knowledge of botany almost any OBJ |
server can say of 4 plant that it is |
good for human use or bad.
The doctrine of signatures was
firmly held not only by those |
who were themselves silly or false |
but also by many who were really |
good and learned men. According to this |
doctrine you had only to look at a plant,
and # you could find anything that in
shape or color resembled the part of the
body that was diseased or the disease
itself that was at once a proof that the
plant was good for you; it was natures
own prescription, which could be safely
followed; for in every plant there was
good or evil or both; they were all bale
full weeds or precious -juiced flowers,
and by their signatures each could be
placed in it's proper rank. without going
into this at any length 1t will be enough
to say that a rt-shaped leaf was sup
posed to be good for heart disease, a
spotted leaf dixie pulmonaria) was good
for diseased lungs, a plant with swell
ings at the joints was good Tor gout.
while the extremes were reached in the
walnut and the fern; the walnut. with
its outer skin. its hard, brittle shell. and
It's peculiar kernel was a sure remedy
for all diseases of the head, whether of
the skin, the skull or the brain; and
the fern. from its absence of flowers and
apparent want of seed was the chief or
only ingredient In making invisible
The author then goes on to point out
the characteristics which distinguish
one family of plants from another. in
appearance and in medicinal value.
These extracts will serve to show the
nature OF the book. (New York:
John Lane.) Y