1 66 A BOOK ABOUT ROSES. 



aged who attempted, without experience, the cul- 

 tivation of plants which required an expert, or 

 who had received from some inferior or short- 

 sighted purveyor weakly and moribund trees. 

 Wherefore, writing with the hope that I may in 

 some degree promote and instruct that love of the 

 Rose from which I have derived so much happi- 

 ness, I exhort novice and nurseryman alike, as 

 ever they hope to build a goodly edifice, to lay a 

 deep and sure foundation. Let the one order ro- 

 bust varieties, and the other send vigorous plants. 

 Then, should the educated taste of the amateur 

 lead him to prefer the perfection of individual 

 Roses to the general effect of his Rosary — should 

 he find more pleasure in a single bloom, teres 

 atque rotunda, than in a tree luxuriantly laden 

 with flowers, whose petals are less gracefully dis- 

 posed — if, like young Norval, he has heard of 

 battles and longs to win his spurs — then must 

 these latter lusty, trusty, valiant pioneers make 

 way for the vanguard of his fighting troops. Let 

 him not disband them hastily. If, surveying the 

 Roses of these two divisions, and having grown 

 them all, I were asked whether I should prefer a 

 Rose-garden laid out and planted for its general 

 beauty — for its inclusiveness of all varieties of 

 special interest — or a collection brought together 



