360 THE FLORIST. 



attire is my reason for assigning them a less exalted position. I shall 

 grow them all again, and it is quite probable that, by this time next 

 year, some of them will have retrieved their characters. There are 

 many who prefer one grand bloom in a season to twenty moderate 

 ones, and who find pleasurable excitement in the very uncertainty of 

 the attainment. Individuals of this temperament will, and those who 

 grow for exhibition exclusively must, cultivate these uncertain varieties; 

 but he who loves to see plenty of blooms at home, as well as to show 

 them abroad occasionally, will do wisely — especially if he is limited as 

 to space — to confine his attention to those on which he feels he can 

 depend. I am by no means insensible to the charms of Bessie, bu 

 she has proved so coy a lass during the past autumn, and " so hard to 

 get," as the northern censors have it, that I must confess to some 

 abatement of my ardour. Uncertainty would seem the besetting sin 

 of the yellow Dahlia. Yellow Standard, IMrs. Seldon, Louisa Glenny, 

 and Duchess of Kent, all tell the same tale ; and the marked declension 

 of Yellow Beauty, as the season advanced, only confirms the notion 

 that the problem of a good constant yellow variety is yet to be solved. 

 I incline to think the want will ere long be supplied. In the collection 

 of Mr. Holmes — the second best 24 at the Crystal Palace — I remarke<;l 

 a noble yellow sort (a yearling, I presume), named John Dory, Now 

 I will hazard an opinion that this variety will prove in the yellow class 

 what Lord Palmerston is in the dark scarlet. I look forward with 

 much interest to its distribution and general cultivation. Perfection, if 

 not an absolute failure, has not yet vindicated the pretensions implied 

 in its name : still, I am much deceived if we do not yet find this kind 

 capable of better things than it has hitherto accomplished. IMrs. 

 Wheeler has been occasionally produced in a manner that would justify 

 its claim to the very highest position ; while, on the other hand, 

 numerous instances may be found in which plants failed to produce a 

 showable specimen throughout the entire season. I agree with the 

 observation that " Duchess of Wellington has not generally been well 

 managed;" neither am I in a position to deny that " it is exquisite 

 when in fine character." I can only regret that it has not been my 

 good fortune to see it in that condition. 



The promise for the coming year is great, and I trust the perform- 

 ance will not lag far behind. Notwithstanding the worthlessness of my 

 predictions with regard to the Dahlias of 1855, I will venture an 

 opinion with regard to those of 1856, if a small space in next month's 

 number is allowed me for the purpose. 



A. S. H. 



NEW ROSES. 

 Now that the Rose season is on the wane, and admirers of this flower 

 are preparing to re-adjust and improve their collections, it may be both 

 interesting and useful to take a brief retrospect of the past year. 



The summer Roses, and, indeed, the first blooms of the autumnals, 

 were, in Hertfordshire, all that could be wished. So much, however, 



