230 PARSOi^S ON THE ROSE. 



THE KEW ROSES OF 1882. 



The professional rose- growers produce and offer to the 

 public new varieties each year. A few new roses are 

 raised in England, but the great majority are produced 

 in the South of France, especially in and about Lyons, 

 which is the headquarters of rose-culture. There are, 

 however, some noted rosarians at Paris and elsewhere in 

 France. While some new varieties are sports and others 

 random seedlings, the greater number are the result of 

 careful hybridizing and crossing, and for most of them 

 the originator can give a pedigree. 



Of the vast number of new varieties annually pro- 

 duced, but a few of the most distiuct are offered each 

 year. A grower rarely sends out more than six in one 

 year, while he may have hundreds of varieties in reserve 

 for future testing and comparison. Of French roses 

 the novelties this year are between sixty and seventy. 

 The larger share of these are Eemontants (Hybrid Per- 

 petuals), of which class there are forty. Of Teas there 

 are thirteen; Hybrid Teas, four; Noisettes, three; Bour- 

 bons, two; Perpetual Moss, and Polyantha, one each. 



It will be a few years before the value of these novel- 

 ties to our gardens can be ascertained. Our climate is a 

 very trying one to the Eose, and the varieties often fail 

 to sustain their European reputation. English rose- 

 growers have produced very few novelties this year. The 

 National Rose Society (England) offered a gold medal for 

 a new Rose, but it has not been awarded, none of the 

 flowers shown for it being of sufficient excellence. 



