I forgot the thousand changes years have brought in ships and men,
  And the knots on Time’s old log-line that have reeled away since then,
  And I saw a fast full-rigger with her swelling canvas spread,
  And the steady trade-wind droning in her royals overhead,
  Fleecy trade-clouds on the sky-line—­high above the Tropic blue—­
  And the curved arch of her foresail and the ocean gleaming through;
  I recalled the Cape Stiff weather, when your soul-case seemed to freeze,
  And the trampling, cursing watches and the pouring, pooping seas,
  And the ice on spar and jackstay, and the cracking, volleying sail,
  And the tatters of our voices blowing down the roaring gale ... 
  I recalled the West Coast harbours just as plain as yesteryear—­
  Nitrate ports, all dry and dusty, where they sell fresh water-dear—­
  Little cities white and wicked by a bleak and barren shore,
  With an anchor on the cliff-side for to show you where to moor;
  And the sour red wine we tasted, and the foolish songs we sung,
  And the girls we had our fun with in the days when we were young;
  And the dancing in the evenings down at Dago Bill’s saloon,
  And the stars above the mountains and the sea’s eternal tune.

  Only bags of stuffy nitrate from a far Pacific shore,
  From a dreary West Coast harbour that I’ll surely fetch no more;
  Only bags of stuffy nitrate, with its faint familiar smell
  Bringing back the ships and shipmates that I used to know so well;
  Half a lifetime lies between us and a thousand leagues of sea,
  But it called the days departed and my boyhood back to me.

  C.F.S.

* * * * *

ROSES ALL THE WAY.

Fired by an Irish rose-grower’s pictures of some of his beautiful new seedlings we are tempted to describe one or two of our own favourite flowers in language similar to his own.  This is an example of the way he does it:—­

“LADY MAUREEN STEWART (Hybrid Tea).—­A gloriously-finished globular slightly imbricated cupped bloom with velvety black scarlet cerise shell-shaped petals, whose reflex is solid pure orangey maroon without veining.  An excellent bloom, ideal shape, brilliant and non-fading colour with heavy musk rose odour.  Erect growth and flower-stalk.  Foliage wax and leathery and not too large.  A very floriferous and beautiful rose. 21s. each.”

Why not also these?—­

DAVID (Hybrid Tory-Lib.).—­A gloriously-finished true-blue-slightly-imbricated-with-red-flag coalition rose whose deep globular head with ornate decorative calyx retains its perfect exhibition-cross-question-hostile-amendment symmetry of form without blueing or burning in the hottest Westminster sun.  Its smiling peach and cerise endearments terminating in black scarlet shell-shaped waxy Berlin ultimata are carried on an admirably rigid peduncle.  Equally vigorous in all parts of Europe.  Superbly rampant.  Not on sale.