PEEFACE 



THE ELEVENTH EDITION. 



Since the first edition of the 'Rose Amateur's 

 Gruide,' a great advance has been made in the 

 variety and beauty of roses. Hybrid Perpetuals 

 were almost unknown, and the enthusiasm now 

 given almost entirely to this division was then con- 

 fined to the Summer Roses ; as a class, these are 

 no doubt quite as beautiful as the Hybrid Per- 

 petuals, but the absence of autumnal flowers has 

 degraded them from their former rank. The 

 Rose shows of this year have been singularly suc- 

 cessful in spite of an adverse season ; the beauty 

 of the blooms exhibited has elicited the remark 

 from a French rose-grower, that no Continental 

 roses are equal in brilliancy to those of England. 

 This is very flattering to English rose-growers, 

 more especially as the acknowledgment comes 

 from one of a nation, hitherto supposed to pos- 

 sess a monopoly both of rose-growing and rose- 



