. SELECTION. 127 



grows on the chancel-wall of my church, and has had two 

 hundred flowers upon it in full and simultaneous bloom ; 

 nor will the reader desire to arraign me for superstitious 

 practices before a judicial committee when he hears that to 

 this Rose I make daily obeisance, because — I only duck to 

 preserve my eyesight.* The two trees alluded to are on 

 their own roots, but the Rose thrives stoutly on the Brier 

 and the Manetti, budded and grafted, wherever Roses grow. 

 Its flowers are the earliest and latest ; it has symmetry, 

 size, endurance, colour (five tints are given to it in the 

 Rose-catalogues, buff, yellow, orange, fawn, salmon, and it 

 has them all), and perfume. It is what cricketers call an 

 " all-rounder," good in every point for wall, arcade, pillar, 

 standard, dwarf — en masse ^ or as a single tree. It is easy to 

 cultivate, out of doors and in. It forces admirably, and 

 you may have it, almost in its summer beauty, when 

 Christmas snows are on the ground. With half-a-dozen 

 pots of it, carefully treated, and half-a-dozen trees in your 



* This tree has just passed through a severe ordeal, during the recent restora- 

 tion of my church. As it was necessary to rebuild the greater part of the wall 

 on which it grew, I dared not hope its preservation ; but the architect, Mr 

 Christian, was an admirer of Roses, and the clerk of the works, Mr Dick, was 

 an admirer of Roses, and under their auspices the dear old favourite has been 

 replaced in safety. 



