OCTOBER. 289 



HYBRID PERPETUAL ROSE— " DUCHESS OF 

 NORFOLK." 



(Plate 93.) 

 This is a strong growing variety, that will be particularly welcomed 

 as a pillar Rose, as it makes shoots of a considerable length, and 

 is remarkably free from thorns, as free as the Boursault. It has 

 large handsome glaucous foliage, and blooms freely ; colour bright 

 crimson, with a beautiful shade of light pink in the under part of 

 the petal. "We saw it growing at Maresfield, and were told by 

 Messrs. Wood and Son that it was raised by M. Margottin, of 

 Paris, from whom they procured it. A large quantity of plants 

 were in full flower, each shoot producing rich fragrant blossoms. 

 Our artist has given an admirable representation of the flower, 

 except that in colour it should be a shade or two brighter. 



THE ROSES OF 1854. 

 Never since Roses have been cultivated in England to any extent 

 has such a fatal season as the past been experienced by the growers. 

 The severe frost in \vinter killed nearly all the buds of the Tea- 

 scented and other delicate Roses, and numbers of the plants. The dry 

 weather in March and April destroyed from half to two-thirds of the 

 stocks planted in December ; and the frost on the 25th of April 

 so injured the young and tender shoots, which were soon after smothered 

 with aphides, that scarcely any Roses bloomed at their usual season, in 

 June and July. It was not till August that the Hybrid Perpetuals 

 showed themselves in character, and since then they have flowered 

 well. As usual with a favoured class of Roses, like the above, w^e are 

 inundated with so-called novelties from France, plenty of variety in 

 names, lacking, however, difference in character ; but there are some few 

 really good and distinct, and quite worthy of a few words in your 

 ** pleasant pages," and so I will endeavour to describe them. 



Hybrid Perpetuals are the Roses of the day ; they seem destined to 

 supply all our out-door wants at least, and one is never tired of their 

 varied beauties. There were forty or more Roses of this class alone, 

 with new names, introduced last winter and spring, most of them of 

 the same unvarying tints of " rose," " pale rose," and so on ; many of 

 them really good, but not differing enough from well established 

 varieties to make them acceptable to the amateur. There are, however, 

 a few, and very few, distinct, good, and acceptable to all lovers of Rosas ; 

 and who is not? Holding a first rank among the few, is Jules 

 IMargottin, which is quite worthy of its descriptive English name, 

 Perpetual Brennus ; its very \dgor(jus habit, and large finely shaped 

 light vivid crimson flowers, remind us much of that very fine old 



NEW SERIES, VOL IV. NO. XLVI. U 



