202 A BOOK ABOUT ROSES. 



Rosa made since then ! In that same year Mr. 

 Rivers pubHshed his first, and the first, Descriptive 

 Catalogue of Roses. It enumerates by name 478 

 varieties. How many of them, think you, are to 

 be found in his hst for 1876 ? Eleven ! — eight of 

 them Chmbing Roses, two Moss, one China — but 

 none of them available for exhibition. Will it be 

 so with our Roses, when thirty-five years have 

 passed ? I believe, I hope so. I believe that our 

 sons will see the Rose developing its perfections 

 more and more to reverential skill, and I hope that 

 the sight may bring to their hearts our love and 

 happiness, for it cannot bring them more. The 

 Roses of to-day exhaust all our powers of admi- 

 ration, our finite appreciation of the beautiful. The 

 Roses of to-morrow can do no more. The Rosa- 

 rian may "raise" hereafter flowers large enough 

 to cradle Cupid : 



" Within the petals of a Rose, 

 A sleeping love I spied ;" 



but he cannot have a higher delight surveying 

 them than Rivers enjoyed over his George IV., 

 one fine June morning, more than thirty years 

 ago. 



Mr. Wood of Maresfield, who had learned the 

 art of Rose- growing in sunny France, was the 



