A Curious Rose Tree.

—In the wild rose tree of the crypt of the Cathedral of Hildesheim, said to be a thousand years old, it is the root only, and not the stem, which is eight centuries old, according to accurate information, derived from ancient and trustworthy original documents, for the knowledge of which I am indebted to the kindness of Stadtgerichts-Assessor Romer.

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 enclosed 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, and well deserving of the celebrity which it has gained throughout Germany.—Humboldt’s Aspects of Nature.