JANUARY. 6 



will not leave the catalogues in a hurry. Rebecca broke very late, and 

 bloomed only once ; but, as I said before, she is a " stunner ;" I 

 have ordered six of La Ville de St. Denis. When I wrote my last article 

 I had only bloomed it once, and very well, and I wished before writing 

 about it to see it again ; and I must now pronounce it to be the best Rose, 

 in the line of rose colour, that I have ever seen or bloomed. I cannot 

 always speak of the habit of a Rose on one year's trial ; it requires 

 often two years to be certain : but, as far as the flower goes, it is 

 perfection, comparatively. Absolute perfection, of course, is absolute 

 nonsense ; but it answers to the following description : — Fine decided 

 colour ; petals large, deep, thick, round, smooth ; opens freely, and 

 stands the sun well. Tiley's Lady Franklin was in her first bloom 

 when La Ville was in the second, and I never saw (except La Reine, 

 when she has bloomed out her vulgarity), two more splendid Roses, of 

 which La Ville was the more perfect, but not the more superb. I cut 

 them with several others, and gave them to Mr. Ingram, of Blandford. 

 He admitted that La Ville was the most perfect, but said — " Lady 

 Franklin is splendid." I think, if Lady Franklin is good in constitution 

 she will be called for. Lady Franklin was in poor soil highly 

 manured, and La Ville in good soil. It is necessary to state all these 

 tedious things when comparisons are drawn. Toujours Fleuri I have 

 not reordered. The wood is bad, but as a flower it is one of the 

 best of the newer Roses ; quite first quality, and a good and constant 

 bloomer. It will need no pruning. I should like to put the constitu- 

 tion of Ravel (the famous French comic actor) or Jules into this Rose, 

 and also into the twin gems Leon and Dupuy. Symmetry and per- 

 fection are, throughout nature, more annexed to small things than 

 great. There is more symmetry in an ant than in an elephant. The 

 only dwarf-habited and delicate Roses that I have ordered (knowingly) 

 are Madame Masson and Paul Joseph. " Robust" is the word for me. 

 I generally get from one to four hurricanes a year. The one on the 

 7th of May damaged me greatly ; as soon as the sun came out the 

 leaves looked like fried Parsley — a garniture for eels. 



I will not bore you with a list of the older sorts ; but as we lack 

 yellow and white Roses I will speak of them. 



I. Yellow. I have received 2 Sulphurea, 3 Persian Yellow, 2 Har- 

 .risonii, 2 Triomphe de Rennes, Narcisse, Louise de Savoie, and 



Madame Maurin. My Cloths of Gold are — one, " mortuus ; " the 

 other, " moriturus" — both on Manetti. As long as we move this Rose 

 we shall have difficulty in preserving it. But put it on a stock esta- 

 blished in loco, and once get it to age, and there is no danger of its 

 dying ; though in our valley it requires spring covering, as the slightest 

 frost nips the succulent tendrils. The Rev. Mr. Austin, of Keynstone 

 (close here), has two noble trees against Ins house, which he says have cast 

 from 1000 to 1500 blooms this year. Upon his saying it was so tender, 

 I advised him to use my wall fruit receipt. He has two equally fine 

 Solfaterres, quite as good bloomers, and also a splendid Ophirie, between 

 the two, which looks like sliced salmon in goblets of Norman cream. 



II. White or delicate coloured Roses : Without white, or yellow, or 

 both, no pan (especially a pan of six Roses) can be perfect. The best 

 I know are Clementine, Hardy, Acidalie (minus the edge), Blanchfleur, 



