84 PARSONS ON THE ROSE. 



successful in hybridizing, and lias originated some very fine 

 varieties. His attention was at one time directed, almost 

 exclusively to the Rose, but it now includes many other 

 nursery articles, and on our visit to him, wc found him 

 much interested Avith experiments in fruit culture. Lane, 

 Wood, and Paul, are esteemed very good cultivators, and 

 generally correct in their nomenclature. From these sev- 

 eral establishments in England and France have been im- 

 ported most of the varieties now existing in this country. 

 Their trade with the United States is, however, compara- 

 tively limited, from the great risk of loss by a sea voyage. 

 We haA'e frequently lost in this w^ay tvro-thirds or three- 

 quarters of an importation, to our great annoyance and 

 expense, and it is only by repeated and persevering im- 

 portations that we have been able to obtain all the desira- 

 ble varieties. 



In the United States the culture of the Rose has been 

 very much neglected, until within a few years. Tulips 

 and dahlias have successively been the rage, and althougli 

 there has long existed a great variety of roses, compara- 

 tively few of them have been cultivated, even in the best 

 gardens of the United States. Now the tide is turning. 

 Dahlias are going out of repute, and the Rose is resuming 

 its ancient empire in the queendom of Flora. The advent 

 of the Bourbon and the Remontant, or Perpetual classes, 

 has no doubt materially aided this change, but it is in a 

 great part owing to the easy culture of the plant, and the 

 intrinsic merits and beauty of the flower. The taste of 

 the horticultural public being thus decidedly for the Rose, 

 a demand will exist for all the information respecting soil, 

 planting, cultivating, etc., and this information we sliall 

 endeavor to supply in a simple and concise manner, avoid- 

 ing, as far as possible, all technicalities, and adapting it to 

 the use of the cultivator of a single plant in the crowded 

 border of a city garden, or to the more extended culture 

 of a commercial establishment. 



