SELECTION. 135 



best Stock for it, so far as my experience goes ; 

 but there is another with which it mates most hap- 

 pily, and of this I had last season a somewhat 

 curious proof Be it known, then, and apropos of 

 mates, that the lady whom, on an interesting oc- 

 casion, I endowed with all my worldly goods, does 

 not avail herself of my matrimonial munificence 

 with regard to my show Roses, but contents her- 

 self during the exhibition season with the produce 

 of certain trees exclusively appropriated to her. 

 One morning toward the end of May, I listened 

 with amused incredulity to her announcement that 

 she " had just cut a beautiful bloom of the Mare- 

 chal;" and being perfectly sure that there was no 

 tree of that variety in her collection, and no ex- 

 panded flower on my own, I ventured to ask, with 

 affectionate sarcasm, which of her plants had dis- 

 tinguished itself for life by this grand supernatural 

 victory? The prompt answer was — " Gloire de 

 Dijon : go to my room and look !" I went, ex- 

 pecting to see some abnormal specimen of the 

 flower, and I found in all its loveliness Marechal 

 Niel ! Thence to the branch from which it came, 

 and then the mystery was explained. I had men- 

 tioned to my gardener in the preceding summer, 

 some remarks which I had read from Mr. Rivers, 

 the younger, recommending the Gloire as a stock 



