Those who are approaching the autumn of life, and wandering in their earlier years among the ruins of old gardens, or in those old gardens which it was the pride of their owners to preserve, as in "the good old times," must at least have a fascinating recollection of the old-fashioned roses, which grew and grew from year to year, taking care of themselves in a manner to excite the jealousy of the gardener's art. Then in those days there were cinnamon roses, apple roses, Scotch and French roses, Provence roses, musk roses, and roses of a hundred leaves; and damask roses, with their Maiden's Blushes, York and Lancasters, and others not only boiling over with beauty and fragrance, but clustered about by legends and historical stories of more or less truthfulness, which added very much to the living pleasures which they gave. The writer well remembers one which had the flowers white, but striped with red, which the old gardener used to tell us came into existence about the time when the two rival royal houses of York and Lancaster coalesced, after years of bloody warfare, of which all school children have heard. To distinguish the adherents of each, one wore white roses and the other red ones, and thus we had the famous "War of the Roses." But the roses, dear things, did not fight.

It was natural that in their love of peace they should so rejoice at the end of the cruel wars as to produce both colors mixed in one flower, to show their sympathy with the general delight at the peaceful turn of things which the royal unions were to bring about. But the English warriors were not alone to have the whole glory of this striped rose to themselves. The monkish legends claimed it in behalf of the good Saint Francis of Assisi. In his twenty-fifth year he determined to devote himself to a life of poverty and religious utility. The great enemy of mankind, with a foreknowledge of the inroads such a determined character as Francis must make on his kingdom, determined to thwart this intention at all hazards, and threw in his way all sorts of temptations likely to divert him from his chosen track.

At length Satan, desperate, took the shape of a beautiful woman and met him as he was walking in a garden, hoping by her captivating charms to make him repent that he had ever thought of taking a vow to remain an unmarried man. But knowing that he who hesitates under these circumstances is lost, he would not even look on the fair being who stood right before him in the garden path, but turned aside and plunged into a thicket to escape her attentions. But the clump chanced to be of strong plants of the damask rose. In his haste to escape temptation the good young man took no thought of the savage thorns. His flesh was torn to pieces and his blood fell among the roots of the roses. The plants had borne but white flowers hitherto, but the following year blood streaks appeared among them, and this was the origin of the striped Damask rose.

And so it was in those days. It is too bad that cold prose has destroyed the poetry of these old-time tales - it is worse that the good old flowers themselves are gone.

Mayor King, of Philadelphia - though a bachelor, is fond of flowers, and the windows of the Mayor's office are gay with pot plants, in a much more healthy condition of growth than window flowers in a large city are apt to be. Among the treasures is a fine healthy specimen of the coffee plant, especially valued as being the gift of John Hunter, the Receiver of Taxes, and which was raised from seed by the Tax Receiver. Two remarkably healthy Screw Pines are among these privileged plants, and there is a "Dumb Cane-Arum," a much better floral emblem of silence for a mayor's office than the Rose of Harpocrates, since it has the power of enforcing its desire in this respect. Gardening ought to be popular among Philadelphia officials with such an illustrious example. Among the recently elected " City Fathers" are John H. Graham, head of the well-known seed firm of Graham, Emlen & Passmore. Thomas Meehan, the editor of this magazine, is also among the "elect."