240. THE BOOK OF THE ROSE CHAP. 
utmost importance to those who wish to choose their 
sorts, and have only trade catalogues and the flowers 
to be seen at shows to go by. For, among Roses, there 
are a great many “little ways” belonging to the 
different tribes, families, and individual varieties, and 
many an otherwise excellent sort has a nasty habit 
of doing this, that or the other which just prevents 
its being as good as it might be. 
A variety may be faulty as a plant, having an un- 
healthy constitution, weakness of growth, deficiency 
of foliage, a special tendency to mildew or orange 
fungus, or a lack of freedom of bloom, or of good 
qualities in the autumn. Andif the plant is all that 
can be desired, there may be serious demerits in the 
flowers as a rule, however good an occasional 
specimen may be. Among such faults may be—a 
lability to be stained, gummed, or rotted by rain, or 
to ‘‘ burn,” that is, turn brown, in hot weather, or to 
come badly shaped, malformed, quartered, or divided, 
or to have some deficiency in stoutness and smooth- » 
ness of petal, fulness of centre, accuracy of form, or 
brightness of colour. 
The Teas have a special fault in that some of 
them will not bring blooms to full perfection when 
grown as dwarf plants, and they are also peculiarly 
lable to be injured by rain; but, on the other hand, 
they are somewhat less injured by mildew and com- 
pletely free from orange fungus. JBesides these 
general faults, many Roses have private habits, 
either good or bad (generally bad!) of theirown. It 
is most desirable that these should be known, but it 
should be added that situation, climate, soil, and 
culture have much effect upon the manners and 
customs, sometimes to a very striking extent. 
