HOW TO SHOW THE ROSE. 25 1 



of 48 varieties — and sometimes simultaneously a collection 

 of 72 distinct blooms, conveying them great distances, is 

 obliged to cut on the day preceding the shows, and having 

 acres of young trees to select from, can generally find 

 Roses of such calibre as will insure to him a continuance 

 of perfect beauty for the next four-and-twenty hours ; but 

 I strongly advise the amateur, who has no such wealth of 

 material, and must make the most of his limited means, to 

 cut his Roses, whenever he has the option, upon the morn- 

 ing of the show. If the weather is broken, and clouds with- 

 out and barometer within warn you of impending rain, then 

 gather ye Roses while ye may, in the afternoon and the 

 evening before the show ; but if it is 



" In the prime of summer-time, 

 An evening calm and cool," 



let your Roses rest after the heat of the day, and cut them 

 on the morrow, when they awake with the sun, refreshed 

 with gracious dews. 



Wherefore, early to your bed, my amateur, your bed of 

 Roses and of Thorns ; for as surely as the schoolboy who, 

 having received a cake from home, takes with him a last 

 slice to his cubicule, awakes in feverish repletion, turning 

 painfully upon the crusty crumbs, so shall this night of 



