ROYAL NAMESAKES.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 48, 26 February 1935, Page 10

ROYAL NAMESAKES.

THE ROSE OF ENGLAND. Two flowers arc already associated with the name of Princess .Marina —a .yellow' rose and a miniature cactus dahlia of a lovely shade of pink. The rose was exhibited at the autumn show of tho National Ro.se Society and the dahlia at the National Dahlia Show in England. It is a popular belief that raisers of new plants are at perfect liberty to name plants after anyone they please. This is not the case in regard to Their Majesties nor any members of the Royal Family, says a writer in "The Queen." Permission has to be obtained, and is naturally only granted if the new plant or hybrid is considered worthy of the honour. Plants associated with the names of Their Majesties or with King Edward, Queen Alexandra, the Prince of Wales, the Princess Royal, the Duchess of York, Princess Elizabeth or Princess Margaret Rose are all first-rate plants. An outstanding instance that may be cited is that of the violet named after Queen Alexandra when Princess of Wales. This is still one of the finest

violets. The tea. rose named in her honour and first exhibited during the war was awarded a gold medal. It is a singularly beautiful rose, and the foliage is good, too. There is no rose named after Princess Elizabeth, but one of the new hybrid teas with salmon pink flowers is named after Princess Margaret Rose. Perhaps the best known flower associated witit Princess Elizabeth's name is the bright pink tulip called after her.

Princess Marina is evidently a flowerlover. When choosing the material for the wedding gown, many beautiful materials from the famous Lyons looms were displayed before her, but the Royal bride's imagination was captured by one in which the design included the rose of England, and chiefly on this account this material was the one chosen.

The rose of England figures also in the exquisite gift presented to the Princess by the Buckinghamshire Lace Association. This is the beautiful lace wrap made of Buckingham" lace for Princess Mary, daughter of James 11. on the occasion of her marriage to William of Orange. The design shows not only tho rose of England, but also a tulip, the latter being included in honour of the Dutch Prince. The red rose of England is a variety of R. alba, and Parkinson, in his "Paradisus," describes the red rose and the white rose of England as "the most ancient knownc Roses to our Countrev . . . assumed by our precedent King's of all others to bee cognizances of their dignifcie, the white rose and the red." The white rose became the badge of the House of York, the rose described by Shakespeare as "the milk-white Rose With wlio.se sweet smell the air shall be perfumed." The red rose of England is not the same as the red rose of the House .of Lancaster, which is a variety of R. gnlliea, and assumed. as his badge by Edmund Crouchback, Karl of Lancaster in Henry Hl.'s reign.