334 WiscoNsiw State Hoeticultural Society. 



most objectionable, though there are very many lovely roses of 

 quartered or fiat shape, such as Caroline de Sansal, Baronne Prevost, 

 etc., which are large, full, and even symmetrical. Shirley Hib- 

 berd, in his excellent work on roses, places form before color. 

 This may be right in an exhibition box of roses, but not as judged 

 from our standpoint ; however, it shows the very great importance 

 of excellence in form, without which a rose cannot stand very 

 high in the scale. 



Fragrance. — Did one ever think what we should lose were our 

 roses deprived of their sweet odors? Why, there would at once 

 be a vacant throne, with no rose to hold the queenly scepter, and 

 the strife of Dahlia, Camella, Lily, Gladiolus and Ehododendron 

 for supremacy would have no check, no limitation. Among all 

 the delightful perfumes exhaled by the Lily, Heliotrope, Daphne, 

 Jasminum, etc., none yield such delicate, sweet-scented odors as 

 La France and Louis Van Iloutte give us ; they are alike supreme 

 in beauty and fragrance. 



Profusion and continuity of hloom. — This is also a very important 

 feature, as is ably set forth by W. D. Prior in an article on 

 " Autumn Eosej=," in which he says : " One of the most important 

 points in which all roses of comparatively recent introduction 

 should be carefully watched is that of the habit of free autumnal 

 bloom. Until this has been well established, the title of even 

 the finest varieties to rank as perpetuais is incomplete. There is 

 the greater necessity for this vigilance because true perpetuity 

 is the chief claim to superiority that our modern roses are able to 

 advance over some of their summer predecessors, which in form, 

 color, vigor of growth and hardiness are quite their equals, being 

 surpassed only in the valuable property of having more than one 

 season of bloom. Another reason for impartial examination as 

 to this quality is, that so many novelties receiving certificates, or 

 which attract the commendations of adepts at exhibitions, ulti- 

 mately turn out lamentably shy in autumn, mere summer roses 

 in fact, yielding, it may be, under peculiar circumstances, a flower 

 or two in the latter part of the year. It unfortunately happens 

 that not a few even of the established favorites are capricious and 

 unreliable in the essential feature which gives a name 



