SELECTION. 159 



Autocrat of all the Roses, would soon find themselves, like 

 other foolish Poles, in exile. Their appearance is unhappy ; 

 there is no congruity between stock and scion, no union 

 between horse and rider — an exposition, on the contrary, of 

 mutual discomfort, as though the monkey were to mount 

 the giraffe. The proprietors, it would seem, have been mis- 

 led by an impression that the vigour of the Brier would be 

 imparted to the Rose, whereas the superabundance of sap 

 has been fatal. Food, continuous and compulsory, which 

 it could not assimilate or digest, has induced a sickly 

 surfeit ; and the wretched Rose is stupefied, and looks so, 

 with a determination of blood to the head. Granting a 

 success, which I have never seen but once (in a glorious 

 tree of the old Hybrid China Ftdgens), the process of 

 fruition would be laborious. Only from a balloon, a bal- 

 cony, a bedroom window, could we supervise and fully 

 appreciate such sublimities ! Are we then to discard 

 entirely those standard trees described to us in the cata- 

 logue as " extra tall " 1 Is Briareus the giant to be again 

 buried beneath Mount Etna — /. e., the rubbish-heap 1 Cer- 

 tainly not. He may do us good service, kindly treated, 

 and be made to look most imposing in our gardens 

 holding a fair bouquet of Roses in each of his hundred 



