1 64 A BOOK ABOUT ROSES. 



having some distinctive merit of their own, and which, not 

 being suitable for exhibition, I would designate as Garden 

 Roses ; and I would then make a selection of the varieties 

 which produce the most symmetrical and perfect blooms — 

 that is to say, of show Roses. 



And I advise the amateur, beginning to form a collec- 

 tion, to appropriate unto himself a good proportion of those 

 Roses from the first division, which, being of a more robust 

 growth than many of the show varieties, are more likely to 

 satisfy and to enlarge his ambition. I hardly think that I 

 should have been a Rosarian had not the wise nurseryman 

 who supplied the first Roses which I remember, sent strong 

 and free-blooming sorts ; and I have known many a young 

 florist discouraged who attempted, without experience, the 

 cultivation of plants which required an expert, or who had 

 received from some inferior or shortsighted purveyor weakly 

 and moribund trees. Wherefore, writing with the hope that 

 I may in some degree promote and instruct that love of 

 the Rose from which I have derived so much happiness, 

 I exhort novice and nurseryman alike, as ever they hope 

 to build a goodly edifice, to lay a deep and sure foundation. 

 Let the one order robust varieties, and the other send 

 vigorous plants. 



