INTRODUCTION. 9 



more than counterbalance them; and it is certain that 

 roses can be raised here in as high perfection, to say the 

 very least, as in any part of Europe. 



The object $>f this book is to convey information. The 

 earlier portion will describe the various processes of cul- 

 ture, training, and propagation, both in the open ground and 

 in pots ; and this will be followed by an account of the 

 various families and groups of the rose, with descriptions 

 of the best varieties belonging to each. A descriptive 

 list will be added of all the varieties, both of old roses and 

 those most recently introduced, which are held in esteem 

 by the experienced cultivators of the present day. The 

 chapter relating to the classification of roses, their family 

 relations, and the manner in which hew races have arisen 

 by combinations of two or more old ones, was suggested 

 by the difficulties of the writer himself at an early period 

 of his rose studies. The want of such explanations, in 

 previous treatises, has left their readers in a state of 

 lamentable perplexity on a subject which might easily 

 have been made sufficiently clear. 



Books on the rose, written for the climates of France 

 or England, will, in general, greatly mislead the cultivators 

 here. Extracts will, however, be given from the writings 

 of the best foreign cultivators, in cases where experience 

 has shown that their directions are applicable to the cli- 

 mate of the Northern and Middle States. The writer 

 having been for many years a cultivator of the rose, and 



