XII MANNERS AND CUSTOMS 213 



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 shows an eye, and we should probably 

 be doing no injustice in supposing that a Rose which is 

 " good 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 

 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 or that or the other which just prevents its 

 being as good as it might be. 



