pant MANNERS AND CUSTOMS 239 
red, scarlet, and crimson are my strongholds, and 
in the following catalogue I shall mostly use the 
descriptions of colour to be found in the trade-lists, 
the best of which are carefully compiled from a long 
and widespread knowledge of the various sorts, and 
a study and comparison of the different shades. My 
endeavour will be to supplement these descriptions 
with other matters that the purchaser and chooser 
would like to know as an addition to and commentary 
upon published catalogues. 
For instance, the novice student of these seductive 
pamphlets will only require a little knowledge of 
human nature to enable him to take a fair discount 
off the description given by the raiser himself of any 
one sort: and he will find it advantageous to be 
acquainted with some slight vagaries in catalogue- 
English which custom has sanctioned. In this 
language “‘ medium-sized’? means ‘small,’ and 
“‘pretty’’ generally implies the same. In growth, 
““moderate ’’ means ‘‘ weakly,” ‘‘ free’’ describes a 
plant which is rather weakly but branching, and 
‘“‘vigorous”’ stands for ordinary growth. ‘‘A good 
pot Rose” might very likely mean that it would not 
stand any bad weather out of doors, a “‘ nearly full”’ 
one mean shows an eye, and we should probably be 
doing no injustice in supposing that a Rose which is 
‘“‘sood when caught right ’’ is bad as a rule. 
It has become a matter pretty generally known 
how unwise it is for a beginner to select his sorts from 
those blooms which take his fancy at an exhibition : 
and there are drawbacks to the cultivation of a good 
many of the show varieties, which we cannot expect 
to find noted in catalogues for sale. These demerits 
and bad habits of certain Roses I want to point out 
as well as their good qualities, as they are of the 
