THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



127 



same, which is not the ease with Tom 

 Thumbs grown from seed. 



Among miscellaneous subjects I 

 must not forget the most beautiful 

 varieties of double Senecios, of 

 which Messrs. Dillistone, of Sible 

 Hedingham, Essex, sent me examples 

 last year. I do not know under what 

 names these are being sent out, but 

 I can say of them that they surpass 



all the senecios I have ever before 

 seen ; one is a large globular and 

 finely formed purple flower, the 

 other a purplish crimson. Whoever 

 would like to secure plants to propa- 

 gate from should order them at once, 

 and plant them out, so as to see their 

 beauty before investing time and 

 strength in increasing them. 



S. H. 



ROSE GOSSIP.— No. XI. 



BAD BOSES. 



Oub worthy Editor has suggested to 

 me a paper upon "bad " roses. Now 

 whether he is merely " poking fun 

 at me," or whether he really thinks 

 something useful upon the subject 

 may be offered to those tyros who 

 join the ranks of rose-growers every 

 year, I cannot tell; nevertheless, I 

 will essay a few remarks from the 

 latter stand-point. 



The theme is certainly prolific, for 

 it may be asserted with the incontro- 

 vertibility of one of Euclid's axioms, 

 that three-fourths of the roses named 

 in the catalogues are more or less 

 entitled to the denomination of" bad," 

 — some positively, others relatively 

 so, that is under certain conditions, 

 and for certain purposes. To the 

 latter may be added varieties that — 

 like other beauties — are uncertain 

 and capricious, sometimes displaying 

 perfections that all must admire, at 

 others growing and flowering most 

 unsatisfactorily. Both of the latter 

 sections are frequently seen upon the 

 exhibition tables, and are too often 

 selected through that most fallacious 

 medium, by the inexperienced or un- 

 wary. It is to this numerous class 

 among rose lovers that the following 

 animadversions are more particularly 

 addressed, in the hope of saving them 

 much discouragement and disappoint- 

 ment. Passing by therefore ex- 

 ploded kinds generally known as 

 worthless, it is the last two sections 

 that will be passed under review, 

 because many of them will appear at 

 the approaching flower-shows ; pos- 



sibly in the process I may lay myself 

 open to dispute from some who still 

 admire the condemned varieties or 

 whose favourable circumstances influ- 

 ence their cultivation in an excep- 

 tional manner. 



To a proper appreciation of the 

 subject it will be necessary in the 

 first place to understand what special 

 defects are fatal to the value of a rose. 



Uncertainty, a3 hinted above, is 

 one ; so is an unhealthy constitution. 

 Other disqualifications are — weakly 

 habit of growth ; want of doubleness 

 and its opposite fault, hardness of the 

 eye, which prevents the flower open- 

 ing well ; shyness, for of what use is 

 a flower, however beautiful, which 

 you seldom see ? coarseness, and rag- 

 ged edges, and split blooms, and in- 

 distinctness of character. A colour 

 which will not stand exposure to the 

 sun and air is also a serious draw- 

 back. Examined by these tests, how 

 many of the varieties advertised 

 each season will bear investigation ? 

 It is probable that one hundred and 

 fifty names would exhaust the really 

 distinct and first-rate roses contained 

 in every class, and it would be well if 

 all possessing a predominance of the 

 before-named faults were at once con- 

 signed to the hades of floral oblivion. 



Proceeding, then, to analyze the 

 pretensions of certain well known 

 roses of some prestige and popularity, 

 we will begin with Greant des iiatailles 

 as representing a class. This is a 

 bad rose, and the parent of numerous 

 seedlings among which I do not know 



