330 THE FLORIST. 



me a " Parthian " (I suppose his arrows are to take me flying, and to 

 stamp me as a runaway); while, when I turn to the "Gossip of the 

 Garden," I find another friend (save me from my friends!) "<£," gives 

 me a tremendous castigation on the same score, because forsooth I am 

 desirous of attempting a change in the way of judging Auriculas — more 

 of this by and bye. 



But now let me say a word on the subject of your correspondent's 

 letter about Devoniensis. I am afraid, though a very good gardener, 

 he is not a lawyer ; he has never had to hunt up a pedigree, or prove 

 a case before a court ; he has never experienced the delightful sensation 

 of being cross-examined by a " 'cute" lawyer, and after being spitted 

 and gibbeted — been told, " no hearsay, if you please, Sir, speak as to 

 facts, not what you think." Let him imagine then a sharp practitioner, 

 who wishes to obtain a decent little property for a client, and who to do 

 that has to consult various registers, and obtain certificates of births, 

 deaths, &c. He has been very successful in his search, has got a nice 

 bundle of them, and thinks all is in a fair train, when he is thrown off 

 the scent, by the difficulty of obtaining one marriage certificate ; he 

 consults all sorts of people, they tell him "Oh yes! they know all about 

 it, they believe the parties were married in Bubbleton Church ; " off he 

 goes, no such thing — the clerk thinks it was the next parish, there 

 again he fails ; and at last nonplussed he returns to his chief, and says 

 he hears and understands and thinks. " Ah ! my good friend, that won't 

 do ; we must have the proof, or our case fails." Now, when I began to 

 read Mr. Willcocks' letter, I soliloquized — " Well, clearly I am wrong, 

 nothing can be more circumstantial than this, and I shall have to 

 apologize in the next number of the t lorist ;" but, as I went on, just 

 where the interest of the paper was greatest, and where one expected 

 the evidence most conclusively to overthrow me, a gleam of hope shot 

 across me. Ah ! he knows all about the pleasure he had — he tells very 

 prettily his share in it ; but, when he comes to the point, happily for 

 me he fails, he understood, he says, that it was raised from seed. Now, 

 when I say happily, I do not by any means wish to take away from 

 us the credit of having reared such a Rose, but one does not like to find 

 one's self in the wrong, and, until Mr. W. can give better evidence than 

 what he heard, I must be content to say " non proven." I have 

 certainly seen somewhere, whether in Mr. Kivers's " Rose Guide " or 

 not, I cannot say — statements to the effect that it is of French origin, 

 the presumption is in favour of that ; the very thickness of the petal 

 would be against the probability of such a flower being raised in this 

 country ; and I think it quite as likely as not, that the brave lieutenant 

 picked it up in his wanderings, for it was at a time when the Rose was 

 not so much thought of as now, when English growers did not visit the 

 Continent as they do now — seize on everything they could, and then 

 bring home a Rose and call it after their own name. This I call a 

 take-in ; the general public are led to believe that it was raised by the 

 person whose name it bears, and perhaps are soft enough to think that 

 they too may become raisers of seedlings that are to bear their names. 

 I am glad to find that Mr. Standish does not claim Eugene Appert as 

 his, but acknowledges its parentage. Little is to be gained by sailing 



