18 INTRODUCTION. 
may still be reiterated that among the thou- 
sands of varieties included in the genus fosa, 
there exist far too many similar colors, and, 
equally, too many varieties whose color fades 
with the first warm sun, though many of the 
latter class prove more satisfactory when 
grown in a moist, cool climate. There 
might be an abundant weeding of varieties 
possessing a purplish-magenta shade, to the 
decided advantage of both growers and gar- 
dens. Too little attention also is paid in the 
raising of new varieties and in deciding the 
merits of exhibition roses, both here and 
abroad, to one of the most precious virtues of 
the Rose—fragrance— 
. . . The coming rose, 
The very fairest flower, they say, that blows, 
Such scent she hath. 
A blue rose has not yet been produced. 
But it is not improbable that in the evolution 
of this favored flower, a variety with a pro- 
nounced bluish cast, at least, will some day 
smile upon its sisterhood, the result of the 
skill of the hybridizer, or the work perchance 
of the wandering bee. The most recent ex- 
periments of the hybridizer, in this case Lord 
Penzance, is a cross known as hybrid sweet- 
briars, the fragrance of the leaves of the par- 
