290 THE GARDENER. [July 



guinea a-piece. I like to imagine tlie elder Rivers, looking on, a few 

 years later, half pleased and half perplexed, as Rivers the younger, now 

 grey with age, but young in heart as ever, budded his first batch of 

 Briers, and the old foreman who had served three generations boldly 

 protested, — " Master Tom, you'll ruin the place if you keep on plant- 

 ing them rubbishy Brambles instead of standard Apples ! " I fancy 

 the pleasant smile on Master Tom's handsome face, knowing as he did 

 that instead of the Brier would come up the Rose, that his ugly duck- 

 ling would grow into a noble swan, and that there were other trees 

 besides Golden Pippins which were productive of golden fruit. Then 

 I wonder what those other heroes of the past. Wood of Maresfield, 

 Paul of Cheshunt, and Lane of Birkhampstead, would say to their sons 

 and grandsons, could they see the development of the work v/hich 

 they began — the Roses, not only grown by the acre instead of by the 

 hundred, but in form and in colour beautiful exceedingly beyond their 

 hope and dream. I picture to myself Adam Paul's delight at the "72 

 cut Roses, distinct," with which George has won the first prize at "the 

 Xational ; " and the admiration which would reproduce " Brown's Su- 

 perb Blush" on his countenance, after whom that Rose was named, 

 could he behold those matchless specimens in pots, with which Charles 

 Turner, his successor, still maintains against all comers the ancient 

 glories of Slough. 



Of the old Rosarians, Mr Lee of Hammersmith was the first who 

 obtained the medals of the Royal Horticultural Society for Roses 

 exhibited at Chiswick, and at the monthly meetings in Regent Street. 

 These Roses were shown singly upon the bright surface of japanned tin 

 cases, in which bottles filled with water were inserted, the dimensions 

 of the case being 30 inches by 18. In 1834, Mr Rivers won the two 

 gold medals for Roses shown at Chiswick, introducing a new and more 

 efi'ective arrangement, by placing the flowers in fresh green moss — a 

 simple, graceful, natural combination, unanimously accejDted by the 

 exhibitors of Roses from that day to this. These prize blooms from 

 Sawbridgeworth, the advanced-guard of a victorious army, were shown 

 in clusters or bouquets of five, six, and seven Roses, and were the best 

 specimens which skill and care could grow of the varieties which then 

 reigned supreme — Brennus, George IV., Triomphe d' Angers, Triomphe 

 de Guerin, &c. What a royal progress, what a revelation of beauty, 

 has Queen Rosa made since then ! In that same year Mr Rivers pub- 

 lished his first, and the first, 'Descriptive Catalogue of Roses.' It 

 enumerates by name 478 varieties. How many of them, 'think you, 

 are to be found in his list for 1869 1 Eleven ! — eight of them Climb- 

 ing Roses, two Moss, one China — but none of them available for exhi- 

 bition. Will it be so with our Roses, when thirty-five years have 



