1 10 THE FLORIST. 



Eclatante, Alice Leroy, Princess Royal, De Meux, Prolific, and the 

 common Provence, Crested Queen, and the common INIoss. This 

 last was truly magnificent, rich alike in growth and flowers. Of 

 French Roses, CEillet Parfait, Schismaker, Boula de Nanteuil, Cynthia, 

 D'Ao-uesseau, Grain d'or, Grandissima, Kean, Letitia, Ohl, and Shak- 

 spere, were distinct and fine. In Albas, my attention was most at- 

 tracted by Felicite, Josephine, Beauharnais, Madame Audot, Madame 

 Legras, and Sophie de Marsilly. Among Damasks, I saw nothing 

 better than La Ville de Bruxelles, Madame Zoutman, Madame Hardy, 

 and Semiramis ; and in Hybrid Provence, I liked Emerance, Comte 

 Plater, Blanchfleur, and Pauline Garcia, the most. Among Chinas, 

 I saw nothing superior to the well-known Cramoisie Superieure and 

 Madame Breon. In Tea- scented, there were fine plants of Devo- 

 niensis, Safranot, Bougere, Pactolus, Mansais, and Clara Sylvain, all 

 of which had withstood the severe winter of 1S49 and 1850, and 

 were flowering well. There were large beds of others which had 

 been wintered in frames and turned out ; but these were not in 

 flower. 



Mr. Allestree, who is a keen experimentalist, had worked many 

 of the stronger-growing varieties on the Dog- Rose, hoping thereby 

 to obtain additional hardihood, so as to enable the plant to withstand 

 a midland-counties winter. I also remarked a long wall planted al- 

 ternately with CHmbing and Bourbon and Perpetual Roses, Mr. A.'s 

 object being to obtain (by crossing) a Climbing Perpetual. 



Adjoining the Rose-garden, but separated from it, is a large plot 

 devoted to the raising of young stock. Here there were large " quar- 

 ters," or " flats," as they are termed, of plants budded during the 

 past season, the whole in the finest health. Indeed I was struck 

 with the luxuriance and health of the whole stock, not an aphis 

 being visible. Mr. Allestree attributed the health of his plants, and 

 their freedom from fly, entirely to thorough trenching of the ground, — 

 a point, to use his own words, " indispensable in the successful cul- 

 tivation of the Rose." Z. 

 Derby. 



[Since the above was in type, the following list of " Roses to 

 avoid" has been kindly furnished by Mr. Allestree himself.] 



Some five or six years ago, owing to a change of residence, I 

 was released from the management of a large farm ; and having only 

 some grass-land to attend to, 1 had comparative leisure, and became 

 a Rose-grower ; although previously, in common with most farmers, 

 either from want of time or inclination, or both, I had paid very Httle 

 attention to gardening. Well, my first lot of four dozen were pro- 

 cured from an eminent cultivator of the queen of flowers, the selec- 

 tion of sorts being left to himself. Rose-catalogues were afterwards 

 searched, and those described as " superb," "beautiful," " excellent," 

 were speedily added. Mr. Rivers', and more recently Mr. W. Paul's, 

 work on the Rose, together with the reports of metropolitan exhibi- 

 tions, were consulted, and in a short time my collection amounted to 

 rather more than four hundred varieties, scarcely one of them being 



