160 DESCRIPTION OF THE ROSE. 



grow again. This very well describes them. They make 

 a growth in spring and early summer, and the young 

 wood thus produced bears a crop of flowers. Then the 

 plant rests for a while ; but soon begins another growth, 

 which, in turn, bears flowers, though less abundantly than 

 before. The June, or once - blooming roses, it is true, 

 make also a first and second growth ; but, with them, the 

 second growth gives leaves alone. In the true ever- 

 blooming roses, or roses that bloom continuously, the 

 growth of young wood capable of bearing flowers is 

 going on with little interruption during the whole period 

 when the vital powers of the plant are awake. It is to 

 stimulate the production of this blooming wood that we 

 prune back the shoots that have already bloomed, as soon 

 as the flowers have faded. 



It is the possession of a great variety of roses of repeated 

 or continuous bloom that gives to the rose-lovers of our own 

 day their greatest advantage over those of former times. 

 Our forefathers had but very few autumnal roses. The 

 ancient Romans, it seems, had roses in abundance in 

 November and December ; but this must have been with 

 the aid of a supreme skill in cultivation, as there is no rea- 

 son to believe that they were in possession of those Chinese 

 and Indian species, to which the modern florist is indebted, 



