392 THE GARDENER. [Sept. 



timid brethren tittered merrily when a frost of abnormal vigour 

 destroyed three-fourths of my first adventurers. I persevered, of 

 course. If a fourth withstood an unusual severity, I might rely in 

 ordinary seasons upon complete success. Defeat, moreover, and the 

 derision of my friends, evoked a noble rage, a more determined energy. 

 In my youth I heard a professor remark at Oxford (he styled himself 

 professor and teacher of the noble art of self-defence, but the condition 

 of his nose was more suggestive to me of one who was taking lessons) 

 that '' he never could fight until he'd napped a clinker." Then 



" His grief was but his grandeur in disguise, 

 And discontent his immortality." 



So felt I, and so fought and conquered ; and I advise the amateur with 

 a good courage to bud those Tea Eoses which are mentioned on the 

 list for exhibition. They survive nine winters out of ten, here in the 

 midland counties, and although they will not bloom early in their first 

 season, they will do so in the autumn, and in the summer following 

 will be in time for the shows. Let some of them remain where they 

 are, some be removed to warm corners and to positions least exposed 

 to rough weather, and let some, where there is accommodation, he placed 

 against a ivall. Upon your house, between fruit-trees, wherever you 

 have a vacant mural space, there put in a Tea Rose. The most re- 

 liable varieties among the hardier Teas are Adam, Comte de Paris, 

 Devoniensis, Climbing Devoniensis, Gloire de Dijon, Louise de Savoie, 

 Madame Bravy, Madame Rachel, Madame Willermorz, Rubens, and 

 Souvenir d'un Ami. Reine du Portugal, a beautiful yellow Rose, is 

 promising, but " not proven." These Tea Rose-trees should not be 

 pruned before April, and then sparingly. 



Set up your Roses boldly, with the tubes well above the Moss, and 

 keep a uniform height. Most of the show varieties will hold them- 

 selves erect and upright, but some are of drooping habit, and their 

 spinal weakness requires the support either of a thin slip of wood or 

 twig secured with thread to the stalk, or of moss pressed firmly round 

 them after they have been placed in the tube. Turn your Rose slowly 

 round before you finally fix it, so that you may present it in its most 

 attractive phase to the censor. I have seen Roses looking anywhere 

 but at the judge, as though they had no hopes of mercy. 



Do not be induced to admit a Rose only because it is new, or be- 

 cause it has some one point of excellence, being defective in others — 

 e.g., a Rose ill-formed because it is brilliant in colour, or a dull coarse 

 bloom on account of its size. The judge will be down upon that in- 

 valid swiftly and surely, as a fox upon a sick partridge. 



Nor place two Roses together which are both deficient in foliage. 



