74 THE EVERGREEN ROSE. 



a loss what varieties to bud them with ; for, be it 

 remembered, all stout and old Rose-stocks require 

 to be worked with very strong-growing sorts of 

 roses, to take off the abundance of sap, and keep 

 them in a healthy state. At last in a mere freak 

 of fancy, I had them budded with some varieties 

 of the Evergreen Rose (Rosa sempervirens). 

 They grew most luxuriantly ; and after a y^ar or 

 two, not being trees adapted for sale, they were 

 planted in a sloping bank of strong white clay,. 

 and left to grow and bloom as nature dictated — - 

 not a shoot was ever touched with the pruning 

 knife, and they soon formed themselves into 

 beautiful dome-like trees. 



The annexed figure (p. 75) is a portrait of one 

 of these trees, now a well-known variety, the 

 Felicite Perpetue."^ This tree is on a stem a 

 trifle more than two feet in height, and it has 

 been these two or three summers past a picture of 

 beauty. When in full bloom the ends of its shoots 

 rest on the ground, and then it forms a perfect 

 dome of roses ; nothing in Rose-culture can really 

 be more beautiful. It will be at once seen with 

 what facility such stout, short old Rose-stocks can. 

 be found in any hedge : they may be planted 

 in the kitchen garden, budded with the above- 

 mentioned sort, and, to give variety in colour, 

 with some of the following kinds, all varieties of 



* This figure and description are copied, by permission, from 

 the ' Florist,' for which I wrote it in 1851. 



