Ancient Rose Tree.

—There is a wild rose tree in the crypt of the Cathedral of Hildesheim, the root of which is eight centuries old. A legend connects the rose tree with a vow made by the first founder of the cathedral, Ludwig the Pious; and an original document of the 11th century says, “that when Bishop Hezilo rebuilt the cathedral, which had been burnt down, he closed the roots of the rose tree with a vault which still exists, raised upon this vault the crypt, which was re-consecrated in 1061, and spread out the branches of the rose tree upon the walls.

The stem now living is twenty-six and a half feet high and about two inches thick, and the outspread branches cover about thirty-two feet of the external wall of the eastern crypt. It is doubtless of considerable antiquity.—Humboldt’s Aspects of Nature.