PREFACE. 



In submitting the present work to the public, it is thought desirable to state that 

 it contains an exposition of the principles followed in the Cheshunt Nurseries, 

 where the Rose has been extensively and successfully cultivated for many years. 

 A chief inducement to its publication was, the writer's desire to improve the 

 condition of a favourite flower. It had long appeared to him that a work 

 entering into the detail of Rose-culture, elucidating the various practices by 

 means of Wood-engravings, and furnishing Coloured Plates of some of the choicest 

 kinds, was a desideratum ; and that the non-existence of such a work proved a 

 formidable barrier to the agreeable and satisfactory prosecution of this branch of 

 Floriculture. 



Holding these views, it was his wish to publish in a form, and at a price, which 

 would place the work within reach of the humblest cultivator; but the great 

 expense attending the production of Coloured Plates in a highly-finished style, and 

 the knowledge that the circulation of a class-work must necessarily be limited, 

 pointed out the impracticability of pursuing such a course, and the idea was 

 ultimately, though with reluctance, abandoned. 



The publication did not, however, appear unadvisable because it could not be 

 made more generally accessible. On the contrary, it was evident, from conver- 

 sation with numerous Amateurs and professional Florists, who from time to time 

 visited the Nurseries, that it was greatly required. It was argued that there were 

 more lovers of flowers seeking amusement in the culture of the Rose at the 

 present time than at any previous period; that the most difficult and important 

 branches of cultivation were nowhere fully and clearly treated of; and that 

 although other favourites had figured liberally in the Floricultural Periodicals 

 of the day, this had remained almost unnoticed, no series of Coloured Drawings 

 having appeared later than 1820, since which period the Rose had undergone 

 a thorough change. Into the causes of this it is needless to inquire. Suffice it 

 to say, that the neglect could not have originated in an indifference to the merits, 

 or a supposed unpopularity of the flower. We can scarcely enter any garden, 

 however humble, which does not contain a Rose-tree ; and many of the noted 

 establishments in England have, like in Rome of old, places set apart expressly 

 for their cultivation. And it is not a slavish obedience to fashion that has 

 led to this. Although cherished alike by peer and peasant, the popularity of 

 the Rose rests on a surer foundation — its intrinsic merit. What other genus of 



