274 ON PYRAMIDS Of ROSES. 



a little dry sand just round the bulb. Nothing more is necessary 

 until the foliage appears, when, if the ground is likely to become 

 dry, or in a dry season, such as the past summer, the plants will 

 be all the better for a plentiful supply of water. 



If the foregoing particulars are attended to, you will be gratified 

 with a profuse and lovely bloom from July till frost comes, and 

 says, in effect, "Well have no more on't." 



J. Plant. 



ARTICLE III.— Oh Pyramids of Roses. By Mr. Wm. 

 Barratt, Nurseryman, Wakefield, Yorkshire. 



In a book which, as far as my memory serves me, was an hun- 

 dred years old, I recollect having seen applied to the Rose a title 

 which I think it most assuredly merited, viz. " the Queen of 

 Flowers." If, then, at a period " so long gone by," the above title 

 was so justly applicable, with what infinitely greater propriety 

 may it at the present day lay claim to that appellation : for 

 although flowers in general have since that time passed so many 

 grades of improvement, in variety, splendour, and in great addi- 

 tion to their numbers, yet, in my opinion, the Rose still maintains 

 her exalted station amongst our valuable importations and indige- 

 nous favourites ; for within the space of fifty years, no kind of 

 plant or variety of flowering shrub has been so strikingly improved, 

 not even the Dahlia itself: for while the latter furnishes an inde- 

 scribable autumnal decoration to our gardens, the Rose, in the 

 earlier months of the year, not only shines forth with equal variety 

 of colour, but has the additional excellency of perfuming the air 

 with a rich inimitable odour, and during every season (even when 

 all other flowers have failed) of contributing its quota to enliven 

 the dreary months of winter by its beautiful and fragrant flower. 

 I have not had my garden (I mean in the open air) without Roses 

 in bloom for I think at least two years, thus affording me an ocu- 

 lar demonstration that the Rose is no usurper by claiming the title 

 of Qceen of Flowers. 



A clump or bed of perpetual or ever-blowing Roses, is, in my es- 

 timation, indispensibly requisite in every flower garden. The size 

 of the bed, or number of sorts, must be determined by the extent 



