THE FLORIST. 



branches are weighed to the ground ; these are budded on stems 

 barely five feet high. The most eligible height is from five and a 

 half to six feet ; if taller, the wind seems always to have a spite 

 against them, and lays them prostrate, to the great risk of fracture, 

 once or twice a-year. A stout stake of cast iron, heart-of-oak, or 

 larch, forms the best support ; and laid cord, dipped in melted tallow, 

 will fasten them to the stake better than any other material, as it 

 does not injure the bark like wire, and will last two years. It must 

 be wound round both stem and stake several times. A fine tree of 

 Sempervirens Rampant, six feet in height, is just now in great beauty. 

 What a snowy mass it forms ! And Princesse Marie, of the same 

 group, on a six-feet stem (this is certainly the height), with its deep 

 pink ; and Princesse Louise, with its flowers of a lighter pink, or 

 rather flesh- colour : how pretty, how graceful they all are ! 



June 30th. — Two trees of the Ayrshire Rose, Bennet's seedling., or 

 Rosa Thoresbyana, are now covered with a multitude of flowers, "pure 

 as unsunned snow," far outnumbering their leaves ; they are budded 

 on five-feet stems, and their branches rest on the ground : at night 

 they are remarkably conspicuous, and, to use the expression of a 

 schoolboy who viewed them at the midnight hour, " they look like 

 ghosts." Although ranked among the Ayrshire Roses, this variety 

 differs much in its time of blooming, as it is generally more than a 

 fortnight later ; it is a double variety of the Rosa avensis, or " creep- 

 ing Dog-Rose" of our woods, and was found in Yorkshire. 



July oth. — The Moss Roses are to-day in full beauty. Hov. 

 amonsr the new varieties of this charming group are really worthy at- 

 tention! the new dark Moss Roses, Purpurea rubra, Cramoisie, Foncee, 

 Vaugelin, andL'Obscurite, are all semi-double, poor meagre varieties. 

 Celina is still the best dark Moss Rose known, and the Luxembourg 

 Moss the next best: for Com:e~~f le Xoe, about equal to Celina, is 

 so delicate that it will scarcely exist even under the best culture, 

 Lanei is in fine bloom, and is certainly the best of the new 

 Roses ; its colour is invariably here of a deep rose, — not so crimson 

 in its tint as the figure given in The Florist, No. V. How unap- 

 proachable is the quality of the old Moss Rose as compared to the 

 new varieties : that is always globular, perfect, and beautiful ; they 

 are all inclined to reflex or throw back their petals, and thus suffer 

 much by comparison with it. We want a Moss Rose like the old 

 - in form and fragrance, with the colour of Celina, and a free 

 bloomer in autumn. The Perpetual Crimson and Perpetual Red 

 Moss Roses are very pretty; but the latter is a most delicate grower, 

 and seems to require some other stock than those hitherto used. 



July Sth. — The new hybrid Perpetual Rose, Etendard de Marengo, 

 or, as it will be better to Anglicise it, the Standard of Marengo, 

 raised by the person who raised the Geant des Batailles, and de- 

 scribed by him as superior to it, is shewing its beauties ; it is really 

 a charming Rose, of a more elegant cuped shape than its rival, and 

 of a beautiful brilliant crimson ; but certainly not so brilliant or so 

 glowing as the Geant, neither is it quite so double ; still it is an 

 elegant and charming variety. 



[To be continued.] 



