SUMMER MEETING. 33 



ROSE CULTURE. 



Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen — "Since the day when the 

 Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden and placed therin the 

 pure and happy pair to tend it and to keep it, all of their off.spring 

 who retain some far-off touch of that prestine purity have found a 

 garden a source of infinite pleasure. 



"Nature is the material expression of God, who is spirit — and that 

 most highly attenuated form of matter, or matter infused with spirit — 

 which we call soul, incased in human clay, attests its kinship to Him 

 the more deeply it feels its kinship to nature even in her simplest 

 forms." 



From time immemorial the rose has reigned as "Queen of Flow- 

 ers," and its charms have been recounted in story and in song. There 

 is no flower of the field or of the garden that appeals so universally 

 to the aesthetic nature of man, and none, perhaps, which repays so 

 well for careful culture. 



Roses are natives of all the temperate parts of the northern hem- 

 isphere and of its colder regions, even to Lapland and Hudson's Bay. 

 They are the chief favorites in flower gardens for the beauty and fra- 

 grance of their flowers, and more than any other flower emblems of 

 everything beautiful and delightful. 



Among the ancients the rose was sacred to Cupid and Aphrodite 

 or Venus, and was the emblem of joy and love, and at the same time 

 of prudence. Its opening buds are a favorite poetic image of inno- 

 cence and purity. 



The Hundred-Leaved rose was the variety best known to the an- 

 cients. It is a native of the Caucasus and has been cultivated in 

 gardens from very ancient times. Other varieties were the Provence 

 or Cabbage rose, the Damask, the Dog rose, the Multiflora and a few 

 others. From these few roses of early times countless varieties, both 

 single and double, have been developed by the ingenuity of the florist. 

 The last decade of years has been prolific in the production of varie- 

 ties that eclipse anything known to our ancestors. France has taken 

 the lead in producing varieties of superior excellence. It would be 

 too tedious on the present occasion to enter into any detail of the 

 manner of developing these new and beautiful specimens of colors, 

 form and fragrance. I only offer a few practical suggestions from the 



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