title: The Trail of the Wild Rose (English Garden Mystery, Book 4)
author:  Anthony Eglin 
description: A party of plant hunters who are dying off one by one is the intriguing, Agatha Christielike scenario of Eglin's less than satisfying fourth English garden mystery (after 2007's <i>The Water Lily Cross</i>). A colleague dispatches retired botanist Lawrence Kingston after a member of a recent horticultural expedition to China is run off the road while on his motorcycle and lies gravely injured in an Oxford hospital. The patient's ramblings reveal that disquieting events may have occurred on the journey and raise questions about the man's identity and the group's objectives. After the patient's death, Kingston interviews other members of the party and their relatives, gradually uncovering a conspiracy of greed, blackmail, fraud and murder. In the end, the awkward introduction of plot elements, a propensity to tell instead of show, stilted and unrealistic dialogue, a title that bears only a peripheral relation to the narrative and digressions about Kingston's personal life bury a promising premise. <i>(Apr.)</i> <br />Copyright  Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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  # THE SEEDS OF LOVE
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ### Florence Henrietta Darwin
  
  
  This page copyright © 2002 Munsey's.
  
  
  http://www.munseys.com
  
      
      
      
  
  
  Transcribed from the 1921 W. Heffer & Sons edition by David Price,
  
  
  email ccx074@coventry.ac.uk
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
    
  ACT I
  
  
    
  ACT II.—Scene 1.
  
  
    
  ACT II.—Scene 2.
  
  
    
  ACT III.—Scene 1.
  
  
    
  ACT III.—Scene 2.
  
  
    
  ACT III.—Scene 3.
  
  
  ## THE SEEDS OF LOVE
  
  
    
  
  
  
  
  
  CHARACTERS
  
  
  **JOHN DANIEL,** _aged_ 30, _a Miller.
  
  
    
  _ ROSE-ANNA _his sister.
  
  
    
  _ KITTY, _aged_ 16, _his sister_.
  
  
  ROBERT PEARCE, _aged_ 26.
  
  
  LIZ, JANE _elderly cousins of Robert.
  
  
    
  _ JEREMY, _John's servant—of middle age.
  
  
    
  _ MARY MEADOWS, _aged_ 24, _a Herbalist.
  
  
    
  _ LUBIN.
  
  
  ISABEL.
  
  
  _The time is Midsummer._
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ### ACT I
  
  
    
  
  
  
  
  
    
  
  
    
  _A woodland road outside_ MARY'S _cottage. There are rough
  
  
  seats in the porch and in front of the window. Bunches of leaves and
  
  
  herbs hang drying around door and win