THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 

 A FEW WORDS ABOUT ROSES. 



BY W. D. PBIOB, ESQ. 



>HE current season has been singularly prolific in lessons 

 about roses. In the first place, the cessation of the 

 customary annual issue from France, consequent upon the 

 great war, has afforded an opportunity for more thorough 

 trial than usual of the newer varieties already here. In 

 the second place, the exhibitions having extended over a much wider 

 time, particularly owing to the admirable and deservedly successful 

 supplementary Rose Show at the Crystal Palace, more varieties have 

 been brought under review than possibly ever appeared before. 

 Practically, Rose Shows have extended from the 24th of June well 

 on to September, because specimens of cut blooms have formed 

 items at all flower shows up to the latest date. The professed 

 rosarian, however, will not have confined his observations to such a 

 limited area. Public and private collections of celebrity will have 

 been visited, and their specialities noted, and principles duly deve- 

 loped from the whole combined sources at command. Some of the 

 results attained by such an exhaustive criticism may appear, perhaps, 

 somewhat startling — open to objection, it may be — but they cannot 

 be advantageously ignored. Thus, a complete revision of the cata- 

 logues appears to be imminent, because it is no longer possible to 

 give the best twenty-five or the best fifty varieties, as was formerly 

 the case. Setting aside a distinct few, there are now so many illus- 

 trations of specific styles, that the choice of their individual repre- 

 sentatives is matter of the nicest consideration — often resolving 

 itself into a simple matter of opinion. When it is said a revision of 

 the catalogues must take place, it is not meant that trade growers 

 must materially diminish the number of varieties included in the 

 stock they cultivate ; but that the selections of the choicest hitherto 

 received must be remodelled in accordance with the qualifying 

 lights afforded by the latest experiences. Henceforth, then, it will 

 be desirable to give, not the best fifty, but fifty of the best, roses, 

 etc., by such authorities as wish to escape challenge of their ver- 

 dicts. Such, however, is the course we shall follow, subject to any 

 special modifications circumstances may render necessary. Another 

 result of owr examinations is a grave doubt whether future attempts 

 to obtain perfection in the rose ought not to be carried out through 

 entirely different strains to those lately employed. We have 

 obtained great size ; we have increased the dimensions of petals — 

 particularly the depth — and likewise their substance ; but we have 

 undeniably decreased their number, and, in too many cases, have 

 lost true doubleness, for there is scarcely a modern rose of any note 

 which, when fully open, does not expose a defective centre, or 

 display an eye. If we take good specimens of Baronne Prevost, 

 Gloire de Dijon, Malmaiaon, and numerous older roses, we shall find 

 the small centre petals buckling over, as it were, and never, under 

 any circumstances, permitting the "seed-process" to be seen; 



