THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 103 



Three things only were wanting to excite competition and stimulate ingenuity. Fame, 

 glory, profit remained to be achieved. 



Exhibition came into the world; weak at first like all young things; but growing fast 

 and waxing strong he soon arose a floral Colossus. One foot rested in London, the other 

 in France; his limbs were encircled with roses ; crowds of all nations came to wonder and 

 admire; and the hopes of the rose-breeder were fulfilled a hundred-fold. Forthwith roses 

 became a rage ; intermarriages took place in every direction ; even the remaining charms 

 of the old ones were not overlooked. Every rose was wedded to every other in all con- 

 ceivable ways. No degree of kindred, no incompatibility of tempt rament, no prejudices of 

 caste were allowed to stand in the way. English allied themselves with Chinese, Austrians, 

 Red Indians, or anybody ; the native of Damascus found a mate in Paris ; Barbary offered 

 himself to a rose of Provence and was accepted ; Switzer joined hands with Milanese, and 

 even Spanish hatred of Fiance melted away in the presence of a rose. From these inter- 

 marriages ehildren sprang up in swarms; sickly and robust, handsome and ugly, tender and 

 hardy, long-limbed and sturdy, red, white, crimson, pallid, yellow, striped and plain ; some 

 with breath fragrant as the breeze from a spice island ; others, like some human beauties, 

 most char-Ming at a distance, 



Exhibition took them all in hand ; each was in turn exposed to public scrutiny ; the 

 admired were preserved to become mothers of a finer race, the ugly, the puny, the worth- 

 less perished in his gripe. The giant is 30 j'ears old or thereabouts ; each year he waxes 

 stronger, but, as is the way with other destroyers of life, he becomes more ruthless the more 

 victims he immolates. 



This year he is for the first time to hold a special court of roses somewhere in London, 

 and woe to those whose bantlings are too weak to gain his favour. Present themselves 

 they must; not to appear for judgment will be to confess worthlessness ; to appear and be 

 condemned will be a better fate. They will find in the presence all the dignitaries and 

 celebrities of their nation, all who have achieved honour, and won renown; all aspirants 

 to glory; the decorated and the undecorated. Of the first it is probable that some are 

 showing symptoms of decay ; for old age tells on roses as on men ; of the second many 

 are full of youth and vigour, and may well hope to gain a step or two. To be smiled on by 

 Exhibition will at least assure them of the admiration of the crowd. Let them come then 

 and be judged, or for ever hide their dishonoured heads. — Gardener's Chronicle. 



SUBURBAN GARDENS.— CUERO GUANO. 



There are, in the vicinity of London, as well as in that of most of our large provincial 

 towns, along the main roads and their collateral branches, an immense number of houses, 

 detached, semi-detached, or even when they form places and ten-aces, each one of which has 

 its own particular slip of ground attached, which courtesy, as well as the high-flown lan- 

 guage of auctioneers and house-agents, describes as a large and productive garden. In a 

 very great majority of these, their respective occupants spend a great deal of their leisure 

 time, and not unfrequently a great deal of their spare cash in the shape of wages to 

 journeymen gardeners, and florists, and seedsmen, in the attempt to obtain some sort of 

 produce, either ornamental or useful. Xot unfrequently, however, time and money are 

 both thrown away ; the aspect, often of the most unfavourable character, and the nature 

 of the soil, baffle their attempts, and even when the first is propitious, the way in which 

 many of the houses are built renders it a difficult, if not nearly an impossible undertaking, 

 to remedy the second by the application of manure. Some of the houses, indeed, have the 

 means of introducing a wheelbarrow, or it may be a larger vehicle, by a gate, large or 

 small, according to circumstances, at the end of the garden, or the side of the house ; but, 

 in many instances, the only access to the garden is through the house, not unfrequently 

 through one of the sitting rooms, by a French window. In such cases, the introduction of 

 so bulky an article as stable manure, as well as its unsavoury and uncleanly nature, is a 

 serious business. It must be procured elsewhere, often from a distance, for in few of the 

 class of houses to which we refer do the circumstances of the occupants admit of the home 

 production of such a commodity ; people who keep horses, &c, usually occupy larger re- 

 sidences. In the next place, the stable dung having been procured, must be deposited 

 either in the road, or in the front court or garden ; then it must be conveyed by wheel- 

 barrow to its destination, making a great litter on the walks, even if done as neatly and 

 carefully as possible, while the house and neighbourhood is perfumed with the smell, not 

 the most agreeable one, even if the dung be comparatively new, and if it chance to be 



